“Make Me Wanna”
Thomas Rhett
Written by Bart Butler, Larry McCoy, and Thomas Rhett
“Make Me Wanna” is what country music might have sounded like in the nineties if the new traditionalist movement never happened.
The twang is there. How can it not be with Rhett doing the singing? But the production has that smooth Urban Cowboy sound that dominated the country radio dial, updated with the conventions of contemporary production.
So there’s at least something interesting to say about yet another cookie cutter, lovin’ in the backwoods country song. I’m trying to identify another era in country music where the same elements were repeated in so many country songs at one time, but I’m coming up short.
I have a feeling that the artists from this era that end up lasting beyond it will be the ones who make the strongest, cleanest, and earliest breakaway from this overdone theme. Rhett’s better positioned than most because he’s one of the best singers of the new crop. We’ll see.
Grade: C
Makes me wanna take a nap.
I’ll have to liven things up with “Sweet Harriet” by a Canadian group, the Western Swing Authority from their album “Now Playing”. The “Sweet Harriet” single, released on 1/27/15 and available on i-Tunes, features the fabulous Stacey Lee Duse on lead vocals.
Although I was a huge fan of the Urban Cowboy era of country music, I have to say this isn’t anywhere close to being a favorite of Rhett’s songs for me.
While I sincerely loathe Bro Country – which includes most of the young male singers of today – I do like TR and think he is very talented. But this song just doesn’t do it for me. Not one of his best, that’s for sure.
Honestly, I HATE the production of this song. I cannot explain why, but this song might annoy me more than “Sun Daze” since at least that song is so awful you can laugh/cry at the fact that band and that song are so popular right now. In the case of this song, it’s just SO generic in so many different levels it almost annoys me more the truly terrible songs.
To me Rhett needs to show more as a songwriter before I see him lasting against the inevitable Bro Country backlash. Every single one of his songs has been pretty terribly written.
It’s decently catchy, but not enough for it to become a real guilty pleasure like “Get Me Some of That” was for me. At least that one was fun enough to override how cheesy it was.
I agree that Thomas Rhett is a guilty pleasure. He has an upfront sense about his singing that I sort of like. Unlike a great many ” bro-country” boys he doesn’t seem to be shoving it in your face, and he isn’t boastful. But his songs are trite at best.
Thankfully, the New Traditionalist movement of the late 1980s did happen – now if it would only return
Rhett is a good vocalist and maybe someday he will tumble onto some better material – this one was a B until that guitar break shows up, that dropped it to a C+ for me
Yeah, it’s no “Get Me Some of That,” which I ashamedly love.
I’m surprised at all of the praise Rhett is getting here. I really don’t find him to be that charming of a vocalist and he fits every bro cliche in the book. “It Goes Like This” is a defining song of the bro era (IMHO) and “Get Me Some of That” isn’t much better. I didn’t realize the latter was such a popular guilty pleasure.
Plus, his album has possibly the worst country song ever recorded, “All-American Middle Class White Boy.” Say what you will about “Sun Daze” or “Brown Chicken Brown Cow,” AAMCWB is even worse than it’s title.
The only song I could see as a guilty pleasure from Rhett is “Sorry for Partyin,” which is self-aware enough to be fun.