With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

“Stanley” is the current single from queer Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Camille Schmidt. It kicks off with some perky metronomic percussion before bringing in some super insistent riffs. Then the piece de resistance of the song is Camille’s voice. She captures the dark humour of lives observed in the lyrics. Jarvis Cocker used to do this so well. Camille had this to say about the track: “I started thinking about my plane ride the night before. This woman in front of me had been texting a friend about her boyfriend, Stanley (who I later discovered was a few rows behind us). I was thinking about the loneliness you feel when you’re alone, but also the deeper loneliness when you’re with someone, and that person doesn’t fill the hole inside you the way you’d hoped. It was a time when I was searching for comfort in anything – overheard conversations, interactions with strangers, little jokes I would make to myself.”

The lyrics make it very clear that the titular Stanley is not very nice, certainly a bit of a loser. These lines really describe that Stanley bloke! “Stanley sits and Stanley drinks. When he takes off his shoes he stinks. He’s going nowhere, going nowhere“. Having heard this rather ace song and watched the weird, warped and wonderful video I will be seeking out more of Camille Schmidt’s music. You should do the same!

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