Norman Palm - Shore to Shore

Norman Palm's Shore to Shore is out on March 14th on City Slang Records, following the February 14th release of the single Sleeper. It's a dedicated study of laid back vocals and stripped-bare instrumental backing. Tracks where you can pick out each instrument used sit alongside epic layerings of all kinds of sound on a playlist that passes in turn through introspection, uplifting melodies, cyclical musical motifs and soothing choral performances.

It's all part of an identity that makes Norman Palm seem both experienced and compelling - from Johanna Ruebl's promotional photography (see below) to the overall sound of the album. You're likely to like at least some of what you hear, and may love the whole thing, but either way Norman Palm will have you intrigued and, if you're anything like me, keen to hear more.

80s Movies: Batman (1989)

Batman is my favourite superhero - along with Doctor Who and James Bond, he's one of my few real fictional role models in life. It's the fact that he doesn't have any actual special powers that I like - he's just a man, with a man's courage. OK, that's Flash Gordon, but what Batman does have is an arsenal of rich-boy toys that all seem to fit on to a single belt, and a very, very nice car.

It's also a sign of the times, for me at least, that 1989's Batman was so very, very good, with just the right balance of dark humour and pure darkness itself, while the sequels fell back into the ruinous camp style of the TV series. Compare the psychological thriller style of the first movie - albeit with superhero action scenes interspersed - with the comic-book Batman and Robin (1997) and it pretty much sums up what went wrong in the 1990s as far as big-screen entertainment was concerned.

Singles Round Up: Sunday Girl

Sunday Girl - Stop Hey
Dan: Stop Hey is the third single from Jade Williams, aka Sunday Girl, ahead of her debut album to be released later in the year. Powerful synths, and punchy drums drive this little pop gem, but Williams' charming jazz voice really makes the song. Great chorus.
>> Sunday Girl on iTunes

80s Movies: Big (1988)

Big is another genuinely iconic 80s movie - there are quite a few of those out there. It's perfect for kids and grown-ups alike, because to be honest, the young ones probably wish they had the money and the control of their lives that Josh Baskin (a breakthrough role for the young David Moscow) has as a grown-up, and the older ones probably wish they could revisit their childhood and bring back some of the innocence that Tom Hanks (Sleepless in Seattle, Cast Away) brings to the character.

Robert Loggia is a star as Baskin's boss MacMillan, Elizabeth Perkins is adorable as love interest Susan Lawrence, Mercedes Ruehl puts in an under-appreciated performance as Baskin's mum and, of course, Jared Rushton as best friend Billy Kopeke helps to make the whole thing believable and serves as a visual reminder that Hanks's character is, after all, only 13.

Cut Copy - Zonoscope

After finding success in 2008 with their second album In Ghost Colours, it might be considered a brave move for Cut Copy to have waited three years before following up with Zonoscope. Pop music is after all, a fast moving business. Would the moment have passed? Would their sound still be relevent?

Answer - bah, who cares when their brand of new-wave synthpop has hardly been relevant since 1983 anyway? The bottom line is there will still be a market for Zonoscope, just as there has been for their previous, unashamedly retro, releases.

The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts

The Go! Team are all about bringing the party, theirs is music to dance to. And I don't mean dance well, I mean dance like an epileptic Peter Crouch coked up to his eyeballs and standing under a strobe light. The Brighton sextet's latest effort, Rolling Blackouts is their third, and continues to bring together old-school New York hip-hop, live indie guitars, and brash 70s soul horns, with a childish sense of fun.

80s Movies: Innerspace (1987)

Right, I admit I don't have much of a first-hand recollection of the 1980s (I was 5 when the decade ended) but I do have a cetain fondness for the films of the era. What 80s movies really mean to me is my memories of watching the movies that would come on TV or that we owned on VHS in the 90s, and I can't have watched any more often than Innerspace.

Starring Dennis Quaid (The Right Stuff, Frequency), Martin Short (Three Amigos, Father of the Bride) and Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle), this peculiar little sci-fi/comedy/action-adventure hybrid was a Christmas tradition in our house for years, always to be accompanied by mince pies and piles of chocolates. It's no wonder I remember it fondly.

It comes with bags of 80s cred too though, in the form of director Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Burbs) and executive producer Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones Trilogy, ET: The Extra Terrestrial).

80s Movies: Labyrinth (1986)

You remind me of the babe. What babe? The babe with the power... Labyrinth remains one of my absolute favourite movies - and not in a nostalgic way, either. I love it because... well, partly because it's a full-on 80s movie, but also for a million other reasons. Brilliant dialogue, superb puppetry, two of my favourite actors - David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Zoolander) and Jennifer Connelly (Inventing the Abbotts, Dark City) - and a storyline that's genuinely unpredictable.

We're talking about a film that is forever in my recently watched DVDs pile - and when I'm not watching it, I'm often listening to Bowie's incredible soundtrack. Majestic, magical, and much-maligned, his compositions might not be totally timeless but they suit the film absolutely perfectly.

80s Movies: The Secret of My Success (1987)

Let's be clear about this - I love The Secret of My Success. It's one of the truly great unsung heroes of the 80s. For a start, it stars not only Michael J Fox (Back to the Future, Doc Hollywood) but also Helen Slater (Ruthless People, Supergirl). For a committed child of the 80s, you don't get many better lead pairings than that.

On top of that, it's good clean fun. Not childish - not all vampires and wizards - but grown-up, clean humour with a smattering of smut. Notable in this respect is the scene with Yello's Oh Yeah as its backing track, in which Fox's Brantley Foster tries to extricate himself from a particularly delicate situation.

80s Movies: Popeye (1980)

Popeye was released in December 1980 - before I was born, in fact. I didn't even know it existed until a childhood visit to Malta about ten years later, when we spent a day at the incredible Popeye Village set in Anchor Bay. Back in the UK, we invested in a VHS copy of the film and I caught up on Robin Williams' first starring role.

If you haven't seen it, you probably should - love or hate Robin Williams, he makes a great Popeye and the supporting cast, including Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl - not to mention one of the greatest sets ever constructed for a film - bring the cartoon world to life in a way we may never see the likes of again. While researching this piece, I was surprised to learn that Popeye was directed by Robert Altman - whose Short Cuts is as visionary a piece of film-making as I can recall seeing.