“Probably Normal” — Suzi Chunk (2012) A Tune Musings Review
Tune Musings is a regular series where a lifelong audiophile shares, dissects, and reviews lesser-known, beautiful music.
Sometimes every single component of a particular song fits perfectly together. Remember that Hasbro “Perfection” board game…the popular toy where players were tasked with finding and plugging in as many oddly shaped plastic pieces into their correct holes as possible before the buzzer screamed?
Every now and then, I will hear a bit of tuneage where it’s obvious that every instrument, note, and sound are distinctively fitted together beautifully in the most optimal of proportions.
I hear the “perfection of pieces” every time I listen to Suzi Chunk’s “Probably Normal,” a mellow, samba-dressed swing through the psyche of an unsure lover. Everything about the track makes me picture its constituent pieces plugged firmly in place, influencing its dreamily welded resonance.
Welsh singer Suzi Chunk has been fronting various types of bands in and around the Cardiff area since the late 90s. She most recently worked with Medway songwriter Glenn Pragnell’s funk/soul project Groovy Uncle, whose musicians constitute the bulk of Chunk’s backing band on her breezily enjoyable debut album Girl From The Neck Down (State Records).
“Probably Normal” is by far my favorite track from Girl From The Neck Down. Chunk and Groovy Uncle mix a cocktail of bossa nova, pop, and samba into a song whose resultant brew feels much more authentically retro than its birth year (2012) belies.
And those component parts I mentioned above? Listen to how the humid, tropical rhythm grooves impeccably with the boozy lamentations of the flute. Do you also dig the dolefully strummed acoustic guitar melodies, particularly against the backdrop of Chunk’s superb vocal performance? How about that mid-song flute solo…and how it bridges the two choruses with a solemn familiarity?
Chunk tears her way through “Probably Normal” with a sweet, confident resignation, especially during the revealing chorus — where Chunk (sounding somehow more Dusty Springfield than height-of-her-career Dusty Springfield) admits, “I’m probably normal when I close my eyes.
I’m probably normal when I hear your sighs. I’m probably normal when I tell those lies.”
By far, my favorite moment of the song is the couplet immediately preceding the choruses, when Chunk, in a moment of rueful clarity, muses, “Is it me or did the world just seem to change? Is it you, or did I hurt myself again?” Notice how Chunk stretches “again” out over a three-note descension. Her delivery, enhanced by Groovy Uncle’s flawless accompaniment, still gives me the aural version of goosebumps.
“Probably Normal” is a tune whose perfect parts perfectly incorporate into a perfect piece of music. Check out the link below to experience this extraordinary amalgamation of sound.
Thanks to Kevin Alexander
