Every great movie character deserves his own 80s synthpop song. Here, Psycho’s Norman Bates gets the treatment in Landscapes “Norman Bates”.
If you haven’t seen Psycho, go see it. Right now. I’ll wait. Welcome back. Good flick, eh? I thought so. It’s one of those movies that’s been parodied and referenced so much that you feel like you’ve already seen it. However, it’s soooo good that it still holds up 60 years later. Anthony Perkins is terrifying and sets the template for “mild-mannered psycho” that we’d see pop up again and again.
The song here is notable only for being really really weird. The video is slightly terrifying and really well-done for what was to be only a #40 hit on the charts. After telling us his name is Norman Bates over and over for 3 minutes, we get a monologue in the song discussing the movie and the inner workings of Norman’s mind. It’s hypnotic and perfect for any late-night Halloween mix.
Landscape were a synthpop duo from London wo had a a few hits in the early 80s – this one, and something called “Einstein a Go-Go”. Guess they were going for that Devo nerdcore thing. In the mid-80s the band broke up and kinda just went on with their lives. No word on their mothers.
