RISE’s new single, “Lost For Words,” doesn’t sound like the slow, sad end of a relationship; it sounds like the starting pistol for the next phase of a life. Here is an anthem that throws its shoulders back, propelled by a velocity that feels less like running away and more like accelerating toward something certain. Alex Mahoney’s drumming provides a relentless forward momentum, a frantic heartbeat that has finally decided which direction to go.
The track’s true cleverness lies in its textural friction. You have Brian Petch’s assertive guitar lines tangled up with Paul Kinley’s shimmering synths. The combination shouldn’t work as seamlessly as it does, yet it captures the central conflict perfectly: the grit of a difficult truth meeting the pristine clarity of a decision made.
That moment of epiphany in the lyrics—”my mind is clearing”—is palpable. It has the odd, chemical smell of the air after a thunderstorm, that clean, sharp scent of ozone. It’s not a gentle sunrise of understanding; it is a flash of lightning illuminating everything at once, rendering all the old, murky deceptions obsolete and almost silly in their former power.
Led by Sam Kinley’s determined vocals, the song transforms a breakup from a passive event into an active choice. The pivot from waiting for honesty (“It’s your move”) to declaring a new path (“this time it’s my way”) is a powerful reclaiming of narrative. It’s a clean break, a cauterized wound.
But it leaves one to wonder: is any ending truly so clean, or is this the sound of someone convincing themselves it must be?
