Having provided one of the earworms ( and indeed covers) of the year with "Naked", Stephanie Ryann has kicked off 2025 where she finished 2024 with another cracking tune "Both Ends Of A Cigarette"
The opening few guitar lines and drums set the scene perfectly for Stephanie's entrance. The first two lines of lyrics already paint a picture - The "crowded room" presumably a bar and that vivid description of the past relationship is sung in her delightful twang makes the word "skin" all but turn into a sneer
"In a crowded room I still feel lonely
‘Cause the memory of us crawls beneath my skin"
It leads to a run of bad choices that ultimately do not fill the gap, It is a regret that is voiced in that last line.
"So I find a new distraction every weekend
And every Monday swear I’m never doing it again"
A combination of three drum beats and guitar strokes take us into the chorus., where Stephanie plays with the flammatory language of flames, burning and light up.
"But I still light up the night with a motel matchbox
Laughing with the devil while my world goes down in flames
I know I pay the price for every vice, but ain’t ready to change
So I just live with my regrets and keep on burning
Both ends of a cigarette"
Stephanie is able to outline her position in quite vivid lyrics, the opening lines acknowedging that although the break up may have been initiated by her it doesn't mean that she is unaffected. The latter half of the verse, makes a neat allusion to the fate of Marlboro Man, darkly emphsising it even more with the use pf the phrase "death grip".
"I know damn well that I’m the one who pulled the trigger
Had my reasons for leaving, but I’m still bleeding red
So now I got a death grip on a cowboy-killer
And a glass raised to the demons living rent free in my head"
The final verse only reinforces the well known adage that it's a hard habit to quit.
"The clocks gonna tick down til it stops counting
Yet I never learn from tides that turn, and seasons they just come and go
But like a whispered secret something keeps calling me back to
Chasing every high to drown the lows"
It all makes for a great single and well and truly marks Stephanie Ryann as one #TEAMw21 will be monitoring thoughout 2025