It’s Country Wednesday! And who’s the bro to lead us off this time?
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[6.71]
Micha Cavaseno: Dubstep-breaks! Chic-style guitar riffs which are probably more a la Maroon 5’s “Something to Believe In”! Swooning slide guitars and a pretty decent hokey solo! A breakdown out of the ’70s Stones catalog! Is prog country gonna be a thing now?
[7]
Edward Okulicz: “FM on the radio,” Rhett purrs, lying through his teeth. “Make Me Wanna” takes the most basic elements of country and infuses them with AM-radio touches, disco guitars and bass to make something frisky and feelgood. Barely a country song, more a slick and danceable melting pot — a mutt, if you prefer — and ripe for pop-chart crossover or a genre-bending cover if that fails.
[9]
Josh Langhoff: “I like that song, it’s so different!” chirped the country DJ after I heard “Make Me Wanna” for the first time, the name of the radio station craftily inserted into the song’s final line, the one that goes “FM on the radio” and sounds like a promo jingle. This is why I don’t trust my big city country DJs. Not only do they refuse to #savecountrymusic by pledging allegiance to the Hag, they don’t even know what’s happening in country, like, two songs in either direction on their playlist. Listing names would be gauche but, you know, Aldean Bryan Hunt Chesney Rhett’s last single Gretchen Wilson’s really good 2013 album etc. means we’re in the thick of another country soul revolution! Rhett’s “Lightning Strikes”-meets-“Breakdown” sexual politics are somewhat older.
[6]
Megan Harrington: I don’t know, that roguish grin wore down my defenses. This isn’t genuinely better than any of Rhett’s other incredibly unsubtle come-ons, but I can’t resist his deft Jimmy Buffett beachiness or teeming enthusiasm anymore.
[7]
Mo Kim: The line where Rhett comments on his beloved’s dress had my hairs on edge for a moment, but as it turns out all he wants to do is hold her in his truck. Awwww. Makes me wanna get into my pajamas and marathon Spongebob.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: “…and ingest helium and autotune and cliche until I sound and flirt like a cartoon-rat Adam Levine.”
[2]
Brad Shoup: I was waiting for disco to lap at Nashville’s shores again. A sprightly backbeat with emphasis on the two and four sends this one skidding along the dancefloor, while a tight little guitar figure twirls Rhett around the chorus. In the middle, four whole steps sweep him up before setting him down. His meter is in thrall to the track’s; it’s pure, easy motion. Surprising he set this thing in the daytime.
[7]
Anthony Easton: The side of the road would seem less safe than a back forty, and I keep wondering about the comfort of these truck beds, but living in Alberta for the last month or so, I should tell you that this rhetoric works on people. Heck, if he got a tiny bit smoother and the production was a bit rougher, he might convince me.
[5]
Alfred Soto: What a delicious guitar bed: rhythm licks, bass playing off the vocal, 12-string jangle. Dumb lyric, but Rhett’s growl is as cute as a dimple. Imagine Eric Church lifting his cap high enough to actually see his eyes. Imagine the Blow Monkeys’ “Digging Your Scene” rearranged: that same quiet how-did-we-get-here ebullience.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: Thomas Rhett dials back on the twang and lets trade winds blow his brand of bro country forward. It would be solid Sunday-afternoon-in-the-quad music, but Rhett takes the time to add some tension via the sudden rush of electronic percussion that kicks in after the first chorus. It’s like a nervous heartbeat, and it hints at the nerves lurking underneath the smooth exterior.
[8]
Scott Mildenhall: Of a similar ilk to “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman,” polite disco prizing subtlety. At its heart is a glorious melody, delicately escalating along with Rhett’s delivery of the title towards a barely inflected emotional apogee in the chorus. “FM on the radio” is a near tautology, but everything is so warm it feels like a vivid detail.
[7]
Iain Mew: I kept trying to work out what the guitar bits remind me of and I got there in the end — “Band on the Run”! Together with the organ hum and Rhett’s voice, it’s so expansive and luxurious it’s enough to make his can’t-control-myself approach to seduction sound kind of charming.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: I wonder if Rhett even realizes that he’s totally working a 1980 Eddie Rabbitt vibe on this, the best single he’s ever cut. It’s that smooth post-Urban Cowboy sound, sweetened guitars and electric pianos, and a vocal that makes it all go down as smooth as a shot of Crown Royal.
[9]
Crystal Leww: Thomas Rhett is goofy sweet in “Make Me Wanna,” toeing the line with corny but just genuinely so sincerely enamored that it’s forgiven. I appreciate that he describes her as intoxicating, that she distracts him from driving properly, that he zooms off on the “wanna” without really ever describing what he actually does want to do, and even that weird dance breakdown in the second verse. He just sounds like a cute little country boyfriend who’s trying hard, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
[6]