Following up from ‘It’s Cool To Be In Love’ released earlier this year, long time favourite of Backseat Mafia, Greta Stanley returns with the floating atmospheric ‘Every Time I Think I’m Happy’. Filled with a delicious melancholy and a smooth liquid flow, the track reflects Stanley’s euphoric pop direction – the song morphing into a stirring anthem with scaling choruses and lusciously layered production. It’s like a shot of adrenaline with a calming additive created by Stanley’s velvet vocals.
As ever with Stanley, the deeply personal threads through the lyrics – creating a cathartic effect. Stanley says of the track:
This is a song I wrote about talking to myself when the darker part of me creeps back in and takes over. For as long as I can remember, even as a little girl, I’ve always been ruled by fear and scared to do anything that wasn’t predictable or ‘safe’. It meant I missed out on every sleepover and school camp, and as I grew up I started missing out on being able to embrace opportunities like touring, events, or even best friends’ birthday parties, because I’d just be consumed by this inner critic or overwhelming fear.
Even when I did manage to achieve these things, they came with continuous breakdowns and more stress than necessary every time, which can take away the joy on offer. I guess it’s reflecting on the frustration I feel about being held back by something I try so hard to control but haven’t always been able to I sometimes wonder who I would be or what I would’ve achieved if I didn’t let the feeling win so often, but the song is also resolving in the sense of empowering myself that I’ve had enough of feeling this way for so long, and I’m going to try really hard to feel better and do the work to be truly happy.
Stanley exudes golden rays of sunlight in her songs – filtered by the expressive yearning that creates something nuanced and delicate:
‘Every time I Think I’m Happy’ is out now through the majestic Double Drummer label and you can download and stream here.
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