PLAYING DETROIT: “O.D.” on Britney Stoney’s New Video

COLUMNS|Playing Detroit

Detroit singer-songwriter Britney Stoney recently released a video for her latest single, “O.D.” and it’s a glamorous ode to the city she calls home. Only her second single since 2015 EP Native (the other, “GRIP,” was uploaded to Soundcloud last year), the track sees Stoney embracing a sound that veers away from her previous work and into experimental R&B.

Stoney says that the song itself came to life organically. “I wrote the song and my friend Manner produced it. It was very spur of the moment,” says Stoney. “We were just hanging out and he came up with this really simple beat and about an hour later we had a finished song.” The “simple beat” could loop in your head for days, and it fits perfectly between Stoney’s glassy vocals. Her lyrics (“Call me when you want me/Call me when you’re all messed up/Touch until we’re okay/Tell me that you want my love”) linger just as easily and tell a story of infatuation with simplicity and accuracy.

The video pairs gorgeously with the upbeat song and follows Stoney as she wanders through her old neighborhood and dances on rooftops with the city behind her. “The roof I shot on was a building I lived in for six years,” says Stoney. “Recently, I had to move, so I decided I needed to take that view with me. I went through many phases of my life in that building, on that street, so it definitely holds sentimental value for me.”

Shot by Detroit-based filmmaker KATAI, the video juxtaposes grainy, vintage film with vivid shots, giving off the feeling that you could be watching a home video or a Cannes-nominated film. Stoney’s tulle-draped movements seem effortlessly paired with the song’s addictive rhythm; with every repetition of the line “gimme all you got” she leaves us wanting more and more.

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