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Runaway June – Blue Roses

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Runaway June are a US country music trio. I saw them for the first time at the Country 2 Country in London 2019. I especially loved one of their songs, Buy My Own Drink, which I selected as one of my favorite C2C songs that year. On 28th June 2019, they released Blue Roses, their debut album. On the same day, Heather Nova released Pearl. Here is a review.

Runaway June – About the Artists

Runaway June are Naomi Cooke, Hannah Mulholland and Jennifer Wayne. Thereby, Jennifer Wayne is some sort of celebrity on her own, as her grandfather is legendary John Wayne. Cooke is from Florida, the other two girls grew up in California. Wayne’s first musical success was a co-writing of the Eric Paslay song She don’t love you. As a trio, Runaway June released their first single Lipsticks in 2016. In 2018, they released the EP Runaway June. At the 2018 CMA Awards, they were nominated in the New Vocal Duo / Group category.

 

Runaway June – Blue Roses – Track by Track

The album contains ten tracks. However, four tracks, Buy My Own Drinks, I am Too, Got Me Where I Want You and Fast As You have already been published on the Runaway June EP.

1. Head Over Heels

The album starts with a very typical Runaway June song. Very catchy, country-pop-alike melody, with Naomi Cooke being the dominant voice and the other two girls doing very nice backing vocals. Very catchy song!

2. Buy My Own Drinks

Would be quite an upset if I said now that I hate this song. I selected it to one of my favorite C2C 2019 songs. And yeah, I still love it, some three months later. Great song and the core track of Blue Roses. I also selected it for the first 40 songs of the Flyctory.com Country Music Playlist.

3. We Were Rich

We Were Rich is one of these songs, which deeply hits the American soul. It describes US Country life in a small town and defines being rich not too much by trips to New York and materiality. Nice song, definitely.

4. I Know The Way

A typical country music track, which is streamlined for airplay.

I know the way
to un-break your heart

Yeah, it is a good track, somehow, but it does not catch me too much.

5. Trouble with This Town

Trouble with This Town is a bit more powerful than the track before. Another country life-small town-song. It catches me definitely more than I Know The Way.

6. Got Me Where I Want You

A very nice and intense ballad in the middle of the album – one of the tracks already known to Runaway June fans.

You only want me when you got me where you want me
Where I can’t say no to that look in your eyes
You only want me when you got me where you want me
And you got me where I want you tonight

7. Fast as You

In case this track sounds a bit classic to you – Fast As You is a cover of the 1993 song by Dwight Yoakam, who reached #2 in the US Country Billboard charts with it. Nice interpretation by the three country girls more than 25 years later.

8. I Am Too

I love that song, nice chorus as well and a quite radio-alike hit. Another song taken from the Runaway June EP.

I am too many drinks in not to want to call you up
I got too many memories, but not enough
Are you sitting somewhere tonight
Trying not to think about us
I am too far to walk
Too drunk to dare to drive
Am I way to gone for another try
Are you blaming me for everything I did and I didn’t do
I am too, yeah
I am too

9. Good, Bad & Ugly

Another love topic song. What I like about Good, Bad & Ugly that it is to me the song where Mulholland and Wayne add the most value to a song so far.

10. Blue Roses

Having the title track at the very end is quite unusual. This very vocal driven song makes you feel that Runaway June is a trio, not Naomi Cooke & Friends. I like that feeling, definitely!

Runaway June – Blue Roses – My View

I read a couple of other reviews before I completed this one. There were words like “must-buy”, “masterpiece”. I don’t agree. It is a nice production, yes. I feel that the studio versions significantly more focus on Naomi Cooke compared to what you experience when you see Runaway June on stage. The album definitely has some really great hits. I love Buy My Own Drinks. Got Me Where I Want You is definitely a lovely ballad, Head Over Heels. However, these are all pre-released songs. An album should be like a storybook to me. The new stories are not as good as the classics. The song Blue Roses is maybe the nicest of these new stories. Finally, I feel that the album Blue Roses is average. Other debut albums like Lauren Jenkins’s No Saint are just so much stronger.

 

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