But do they buy their own diamonds and their own rings?

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[4.86]

Katherine St Asaph: If Hailee Steinfeld’s “Love Myself” were a country song and actually chaste. The rhymey list-song structure of the chorus — “I can buy my own drinks, I can pay my own tab, I can call my own cab” — makes this sound concerningly like a children’s book. It also leaches it of emotion. I don’t ever get the sense this woman particularly gets anything out of bars, whether solace or tears or a fun night; she makes going out drinking sound as routine and joyless as taking Unisom. The buried harmonies, barely perceptible in the mix when they should be highlighted, don’t help.
[4]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: A song that doesn’t make any attempts to capitalize on its lyrics. Runaway June talk about a recent breakup, about dudes approach them at bars, and not having friends who want to go out with them. They sound appropriately unimpressed, but the lyrics indicate a wider range of emotions. They sound like bad actors reading a script.
[3]

Alfred Soto: This assertion of independence does well with the spiked guitar interludes, but this results in a polished and less convincing Pistol Annies track. The lyrics are a list, not much animated by the singing en masse. 
[6]

Iris Xie: “Buy My Own Drinks” is the two seconds of delusional okayness that bursts in your heart after crying about a breakup for several hours, when you are so dogged to recover because “I don’t need nobody else!” While fulfilling its role as a pick-me-up anthem, this song bothers me because this is the sound of cheery, forced self-affirmation when you don’t really want to admit that you’d rather not be alone — but you’re going to be so powerful and so self-reliant that the optimism suffocates the pain. It’s evident in the song’s decisions: the myriad imagery of being all alone, the animatronic guitar and backing band, and the practiced phrasing that gives the impression of a blank, brave face with a front-facing smile. The harmonies are effective, because it reinforces the strength of that image projection. The relentless chorus that starts with all “I’s” as to assert an agency held up by self-love Instagram quotes, and it’s concerning: “I can walk my own self to the front door/I can take my own self to bed/I can medicate my own headache/I can be my own boyfriend.” Is she talking about codependency or the aftermath of tolerating neglect from her ex? I’ve bought my own drinks after a breakup, but it was while venting to friends right before my first Rocky Horror Show. Even though I wasn’t alone, I was so ashamed of feeling so dependent after, that I stopped hanging out with my friends in order to manifest my desire to not be a burden on anyone, and weaponized positivity against myself. “Buy My Own Drinks” reminds me of those times. (Advice: Don’t isolate yourself!) As the instrumentals build and the vocals become more staunch, I just want to tell the protagonist that it’s fine to cry and it’s absolutely shitty that this is happening, and while it’s great she finds some symbolic messaging in buying her own drinks and being alone, don’t try too hard to cover the tears. 
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Two things about this feel-good but forgettable trifle: Firstly, it should have been a Lady Antebellum song — Hillary Scott would have given it a nice, sour kick. Secondly, it’s more fun if you switch out the titular phrase with “Buy Me a Boat.”
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Thomas Inskeep: I love the intent, a little bit “Girl in a Country Song” but recontextualized for a bar — but I wish the song were better, because this doesn’t get across the finish line, it’s far too average all around.
[5]

Josh Love: A drinking-alone song from…a harmonizing trio? Definitely a unique approach; I have a feeling Pistol Annies would have tackled this song by having each Annie take a solo turn with a different part of the song (and I know it’s an extremely retrograde sentiment but I’d also love to have heard Merle Haggard’s version). Instead, the effect is that Runaway June’s “Buy My Own Drinks” comes across as more empowering and anthemic when a different gloss on the same lyrics might have been heartbreaking. The apex comes with the “tonight tonight tonight” response in the chorus, which really sends this song into the stratosphere.
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