Premiere: NORMN Melodically Yearns For Closure On “Outta My System”
Existential crises are weird. Thinking about our infinitesimal place in the vastness of the universe can trigger one, or just trying to grasp the fleeting nature of life itself. Maybe you’re one of those people who have an out-of-body experience at a traffic light watching a butterfly flutter across your windshield. Me? It’s thinking about the brain. Don’t get me wrong — the scale of the universe is incomprehensible, and the same goes for how we can be here one moment and gone the next. But those aren’t daily things, routine parts of our existence. In the daily mix of life, they feel like abstract entries, things that drift over but not through. The brain, however, well… that’s everything for our life, especially when we’re not fully experiencing it. Now, I know we use way more than 10% of our brain. It’s a Hollywood myth, relegated to forgettable action movies and clickbait-y articles in supermarket tabloids. But I do wonder if the phrase got lost in translation somehow. Perhaps it’s not that we only use 10% of our brain, but that we only comprehend 10% of it. And I don’t mean we as a modern medical society. I mean we as in you and me and the way our brain functions in our everyday lives.
Take our memory for example. Try as we might through every type of hack and routine and there are still going to be some things that we can’t stick to our memory, like the unique password that was entered for a refrigerator warranty seven years ago. Meanwhile, listen to a song one time in a busy environment and it’s just imprinted on your memory for the rest of your life, instantly bringing you back to that moment the second the intro hits. Anyone who’s ever tried to get over a romantic entanglement knows this feeling all too well and this is exactly where soulful musician NORMN is sending us on his latest single, “Outta My System.” This tender pop ballad serves as a melodic reminder of how enigmatic the human mind truly is, a place where emotion and reason are just one errant neuron spark away from swapping. Out everywhere on Friday, November 3rd, The Auricular is proud to premiere this poignant song today with an exclusive stream below as well as some further insight into the song’s touching reach.
Pensive and plaintive in timbre yet soothing and dulcet in tone, “Outta My System” is an emotive ode to the need for closure. What are you to do when everything around constantly points back in the one direction you shouldn’t look? “Time heals all wounds,” the cliché goes, adding another hackneyed saying into the foundation of this article, but even that one seems off. Time does heal wounds, but what of the scars? Those are what always lead us back down a futile line of thinking, something NORMN contends with on this new song. “Trying to think bout something else \ But I can’t \ Cause I got \ Summertime \ You and I \ Can’t get you outta my system,” NORMN vocalizes, grappling with the overwhelming memory that feels permanently etched into his subconscious.
The music underneath is fluid and punchy, sliding into modern-day R&B territory with a sultry mix that bolsters NORMN’s affecting vocals. The production is polished and clean here, giving enough space to each element so they can imprint themselves onto the listener’s memory, hopefully erasing things that should have disappeared into the ether long ago. Combined with the lyrical delivery, it all comes together as a lingering reverie, one that maybe can understand the mystery of our mind better than we do and ease it, mend it even.
“Outta My System” is the third single from NORMN in 2023, following the chirpy bounce “Praise” in July and the enveloping bop “Sunshine” in May, the latter of which seems to serve as the counter-balance, a deliberate tailormade for the changing season as warm sunshine turns into wintry curtains. NORMN’s versatility as a musician shines through in each of these releases, showcasing an ability to distill the highs of life just as well as he does the lows, offering a sound that can resonate with any experiences. For “Outta My System” though, NORMN captures that feeling of desolate yearning, one that never quite seems to go away even if it doesn’t shroud our day-to-day life. Sniff a forgotten fragrance, view a unique shade, or just hear a random musical intro and you’ll be transported right back to that feeling of despair where you wonder if there’s ever a way to rid a system of the pain.
“Outta My System” is out everywhere on Friday, November 3rd, which you can presave by clicking here. To keep up-to-date on NORM, make sure to follow him on social media.
