Song Review: 'Smoke Break' by Carrie Underwood

by Aprille Hanson
A defining characteristic of country music has been about championing the blue-collar life and the need to unwind every once and awhile. When people think of Carrie Underwood, it’s hard to see her doing a song about that sort of thing. After all, this is the queen of the country ballads we’re talking about, who has the best voice of any female artist in the genre right now. She’s also known for releasing more pop-country hits like “Cowboy Casanova” and “Undo it.”

Instead of releasing another polished or pumped up radio hit, her first single off of her fifth album Storyteller is “Smoke Break,” co-written by Underwood, Chris DeStefano and Hillary Lindsey.

Immediately, the title doesn’t sound like an Underwood song. It’s more in line with artists like Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves, who are a little rougher around the edges. But this song is such a wonderful song for Underwood to release. It opens with a small-town woman “working three jobs, feeding four little mouths in a run-down kitchen.” Nope, no signs of partying it up here -- this is real Southern life. While Underwood’s own lifestyle might not be anywhere close to this, she’s still a hardworking new mom who undoubtedly can relate to needing a moment to breathe. As she sings, “It’s hard to be a good wife and a good mom and a good Christian.”

The chorus is really the meat of the song, explaining that a person might not drink or smoke, but every once in a while, they need a “stiff drink” and a “long drag,” simply a “smoke break.” 
The song doesn’t leave out the hardworking men out there, with the second verse talking about a “big city man” who is climbing the ladder, “first generation to go to college instead of driving a tractor.”

I love this because not every small town son or daughter stays in a small town, but that doesn’t mean that the culture leaves them behind. The chorus’ lyrics switch up by saying “sometimes I wanna pop that top” and “light it up” making it a little more masculine. 
Underwood did catch some flack that the song was “promoting” smoking. “Smoke Break” promotes smoking about as much as Little Big Town’s smash hit “Girl Crush” is about homosexuality.  One listen to the song and anyone can hear that it’s about finding whatever vice or thing you do to relax and using that as your “smoke break.”

She needed to release a song like this right now. More than most artists who are played on the radio, she has managed to release a song about chilling out without trucks and bonfires while also making the realities of a hard working life very real, which is so relatable. Country music desperately needs a “smoke break” and Underwood just gave it one. 

Is "Smoke Break" a hit or miss?