Stanton Meadowdale
Stanton Meadowdale
(Simulcast Records)
By Ken Shimamoto
Stanton Meadowdale is neither a law firm nor a real estate brokerage, but rather a singer-songwriter from Dallas. His promo schmatter refers to “... being visited by Aftermath-era glimmer twins,” perhaps a reference to his having appropriated the melody of “dreaming of her” from “Lady Jane” on that 1966 Rolling Stones album. Careful, kid — the Stones sued the shit out of the Verve for pulling that trick with “Bittersweet Symphony” a few years ago.
Come to think of it, the opening “Waiting By the Phone” bears more than a passing resemblance to the Stones’ ’65 weeper “As Tears Go By.” And the third track, “I’m a Fool,” sounds like nothing more than Mick and Keef essaying a soul ballad in their clunky, chunky Brit Invasion daze. Meadowdale even sings kinda like Mick J., which is to say that he doesn’t have much of a voice, and he successfully mimics the distinctive marble-mouthed diction of the future “meanest old man in England.”
I really wanted to hate this record, partly because it sounds like it was recorded at a Special Ed talent show (although I immediately liked the black Santa Claus in the cover pic). Then a funny thing happened: in the course of three or four spins, it started growing on me like an evil fungus in the same way songs that annoy you to distraction at first can wind up becoming your faves. Hey, it’s The Age of the Non-Singer, right? And I’m a sucker for lines like “When I kiss her on the mouth, she breathes me in and I can’t get out / I go to work and I wear a tie, while other men live and die.” Talk about yer existential angst.
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