'Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight' by Wyatt Flores – Lyrics & Meaning

After enduring a long season of sporadic singles and the occasional EP, we are finally being treated to Wyatt Flores' official full-length debut.

The country sensation du jour will release his Welcome To The Plains on Oct. 18, an album that sees him celebrating his small town roots and Oklahoma beginnings, as well as honoring the people and the places that have helped guide him to where he is today.

It seems set to be an intimate collection, one weighty with rumination and heavy with gratitude, as Flores' offerings so often are. However, no track speaks to the artist's hallmark vulnerability quite like his latest tune, 'Don't Wanna Say Goodnight'.

'Don't Wanna Say Goodnight' opens with the startling strums of Western-textured strings, before galloping into a thundering anthem of racing rhythms and determined steel. It's a desperate sound, unsettling almost, the battering beat like an anxious heart, the song's serrated strums like an insistent plea.

It's the perfect arrangement for an equally despairing song, one that begs for a little more time and fewer goodbyes.

"Hit me like a lightning strike
When she gave me that kiss goodbye
Watching your sunburnt lies
Playin' games within my mind"

'Don't Wanna Say Goodnight' recounts heartache from the very beginning. The song finds Flores struggling with what seems to be a fated farewell in a relationship marred by games and lies.

After their parting remarks and a goodbye kiss, he's plagued by unanswered questions about their return, setting off to ponder the missing pieces and desperate feelings he's been left with in the wake of his love's departure.

The only time he feels whole again is when his person is back in his arms, and so he's left to chase that feeling alone.

"You wake me up like the sun in the mornin'
Can't get enough like a summer rain pourin'
Now I'm chasin' those crazy green eyes
Every time I lean in and close mine
Edge of the earth, girl, you got me free fallin'
Runnin' red lights every time that you're callin'
I know you gotta go with that sunrise
But I don't wanna say goodnight"

The artist remembers what it was like when he had his love by his side. He relates them to the morning sun and a summer rain. Now, he's chasing that high, their memory haunting him and making him feel as if he were falling.

With the final line of the chorus – I know you gotta go with that sunrise / But I don't wanna say goodnight – perhaps his lost love has even infiltrated his dreams, their image playing behind his resting lids. He knows that when he opens his eyes in the morning, they won't be there and he's not ready to face that truth.

He turns to certain vices to dull the pain of their departure, resorting to sleeping on the couch where he can absently watch the ceiling fan turn. He sings how he's never felt so alone, perhaps waiting for sleep to take him again so he can be once more with the one he's lost.

"You wake me up like the sun in the mornin'
Can't get enough like a summer rain pourin'
Now I'm chasin' those crazy green eyes
Every time I lean in and close mine
Edge of the earth, girl, you got me free fallin'
Runnin' red lights every time that you're callin'
I know you gotta go with that sunrise
But I don't wanna say goodnight"

Flores hasn't gone into specifics about 'Don't Wanna Say Goodnight', but he has hinted how the songs on his forthcoming album, Welcome to the Plains, are all so deeply personal to him.

He wrote in a social media post, "I was born and raised on the Oklahoma Plains and you’re gonna feel that in my music. The songs I write are stories from my life and my home, and I can’t wait to share the first one, ['Don't Wanna Say Goodnight'], with you Friday."

He delved even deeper into the upcoming release, explaining in a recent interview with Holler how Welcome to the Plains will differ significantly from anything he's shared thus far.

“Before, I've been trying to write different styles and play different kinds of music," he said. "This time, I'm hoping I give the full compass of who I am as a musician and a songwriter. It's a variety pack, for sure. It's not just one solid thing over and over again, and I've really had to push myself on this album...Of course, I want the album to do well, but I'd rather be proud of something I've created”.

Hit me like a lightning strike
When she gave me that kiss goodbye
Watching your sunburnt lies
Playin' games within my mind

Wonder if you're comin' back again
Didn't know it would feel like this
Like a missin' piece of my heart
Comes back to me when you're in my arms

You wake me up like the sun in the mornin'
Can't get enough like a summer rain pourin'
Now I'm chasin' those crazy green eyes
Every time I lean in and close mine
Edge of the earth, girl, you got me free fallin'
Runnin' red lights every time that you're callin'
I know you gotta go with that sunrise
But I don't wanna say goodnight

Now I'm sleepin' on the couch again
Too drunk to make it to my bed
Watchin' that ceiling fan spin
Just like you do inside my head

Lord knows
I ain't ever felt so alone
As I do when we are apart
Till you're back here in my arms

You wake me up like the sun in the mornin'
Can't get enough like a summer rain pourin'
Now I'm chasin' those crazy green eyes
Every time I lean in and close mine
Edge of the earth, girl, you got me free fallin'
Runnin' red lights every time that you're callin'
I know you gotta go with that sunrise
But I don't wanna say goodnight

You wake me up like the sun in the mornin'
Can't get enough like a summer rain pourin'
Now I'm chasin' those crazy green eyes
Every time I lean in and close mine
Edge of the earth, girl, you got me free fallin'
Runnin' red lights every time that you're callin'
I know you gotta go with that sunrise
But I don't wanna say goodnight

Don't wanna say goodnight
Don't wanna say goodnight
Goodnight
Don't wanna say

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