RUNAWAY JUNE

                                                              "Make Me Wanna Smoke" 

                                                              Quartz Hill Records

Though there’s been some lineup changes since first bursting onto the country music scene with “Lipstick,” Runaway June has continuously elevated their core signatures to deliver crisp harmonies and very memorable singles, “Buy My Own Drinks,” “We Were Rich,” and “Wild West.”

They most recently struck with the ultra-catchy “Broken Hearts (Do Broken Things),” and now with Quartz Hill Records behind them, the trio made up of Jennifer Wayne, Natalie Stovall, and Stevie Woodward set out to make their next landfall at country radio by igniting it with their new single “Make Me Wanna Smoke.”

The boot-stomping, anthemic song, written by Jason Sellers, Ella Langley and Bobby Hamrick, leans into an insatiable melody to perfectly encapsulate the I know better feelings as they sing us through a lyric that compares a bad relationship you can’t seem to leave behind to the failing efforts of trying to drop a bad habit.

With intriguingly sultry movement, both in melody and vocals, the trio keeps your hips popping through the verse where they quickly center on the conflicting emotions of not being able to let go and move on when its admitted, “I don't know if I want you, baby, but I want you back”;  a sentiment that’s reiterated in the second verse when it’s confessed, “But you've got something, and I can't fight it." 

The rhythm embedded into the boot-stomping slap of the chorus will instantly have you pumping your fist as it runs through a listing of the back-and-forth struggles between doing what’s right and doing what you know is wrong but feels so right:

“You make me wanna smoke

You make me wanna quit

You make me wanna drink 'til I'm sick of it

Make me wanna hide away my heart

You make me wanna let you take it way too far

'Cause loving something bad for me is all that I know

I'm probably just pushing my luck (Uh)

There you go lighting me up

You make me wanna smoke”

With a very steamy romp through the bridge, the picture is perfectly painted of the scenario that has her about to lose her mind as her heart beats out her chest, pushing her over the edge when his hands are on her hips and his lips are all over hers.

We’ve all been here before. This is the battle between heart and mind, letting go and holding on. All too often, the way it plays out through the song is the exact way that it plays out in real life when we almost always give in rather than just walk away. Couple that strong relatability factor with an irresistible melody that commands you to listen, and Runaway June has just blasted out the gate with their next surefire smash on their debut for Quartz Hill Records.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

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