Norm Adams and Julia Robertson Release New Single/Video

Returning to the forefront of R&B after a slight break following 2019’s “Body Rush” and “Home Tonight”, Norm Adams and Julia Robertson have crafted a killer tune with their newest single “Over”. There’s a certain level of reverence that Adams has carried himself with over the near decade he’s been in music. Not afraid to get slightly corny or overly familiar with the listener, he’s managed to find the sweet spot between saccharine and incredibly vulnerable. You’d have to have a cast iron heart not to empathize with his pain that he sings about in this single.

Not without its faults as sometimes the electronic and synthetic backing band leaves a little to be desired, it’s more a showcase for Adams’ rich voice and storytelling abilities that are even rendered more potent when Robertson chimes in from time to time to either oppose, challenge, or sympathize with the heartbreak described. The song opens with an almost subversive blast like something you’d almost hear in a broadway show like “Dreamgirls”, before things settle into a more comfortable groove. Comfortable is almost disconcerting the way it’s used here with the narrator saying he’d like to keep things grounded and so that he can get his head on straight. It manages to capture the painful feelings of trying not to make an ass of yourself especially in a losing fight when no one is at fault. The song knows exactly when to lean into Adams’ voice as he says lines like “This is not like we planned” and “They tell me it’s over”.

It’s heartbreaking to hear the almost mile a minute thought process of someone coming to terms with things. For fans of old school R&B and Soul, you’ll find plenty to bite on here as you can with nearly all of Adams’ past work. He’s a lover of the genre and while you can hear his influences ranging from Bill Withers to more appropriately Al Green as the song almost operates as an inverse “Let’s Stay Together”. Luckily he doesn’t get bogged down by his affinity for the genre and its forebears which allows the song to stand firmly on its own. Despite it’s relatively efficient runtime of around 4 minutes, there’s something almost exhausting about the ordeal when it’s said and done. After its effective crescendos and some truly spellbinding work from Robertson, you can feel everyone in the room waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when the song fades out, it never feels abrupt as much as the fade out of a particular chapter to give way to another.

I’d argue this is Adams’ most thoughtful song to date and one that I think will stick out as a highlight in the rest of his discography. Plenty will be able to relate and break this song down, but as a raw emotional piece, I think for many it’ll become a lifelong favorite. R&B never went away, but hopefully with Adams it can have new life instilled in it. 

Michael Rand

The music of Norm Adams and Julia Robertson has been heard all over the world in partnership with the radio plugging services offered by Musik and Film Radio Promotions Division.  Learn more https://musikandfilm.com