The thing is that "Lost For Words" does not begin but hits like a cold wind in Liverpool when you have stepped out of the bar at the middle of the night and the entire city is breathing under the streetlights. The song breaks in as a bus blazing down to Smithdown Road banging its windows, cutting a path through the darkness. RISE seize you immediately, as they have stuck out of the speakers, grabbed you by the jacket and said, Listen. This matters."
The voice of Sam Kinley is that coarse, grating rim of a person attempting to hold him together when all that was inside of him is quivering. It hurts in it all right, but there is this smouldering rebellion, too,--the kind of rebellion that comes up when you have strolled away and find yourself in the middle of things and you suddenly remember you have still got your wings. He does not sing words, he throws them, as though he is trying to outrun the incident that shattered him.
This electric snarl of Brian Petch cuts through the track with a bright and sharp sound like neon on wet pavement. The keys of Paul are suspended about it all, and this late-night light falls on the entire piece, making the entire piece very giant-like, almost movie-like. And under that there is the stubborn pounding of the drums of Alex who refuses to remain broken. It is all too 90s radio rock, greasy with Mersey seawater, big feelings, bigger choruses all straining to breathe the same air as sky.
There's no wallowing. It is the time when you move behind the steering wheel, slam the door, turn the volume up and, all of a sudden, you realize that the world is not over. It's just changed shape. Those chorus harmonies pick you up-- like really pick you up-- like your chest is made lighter a moment and you think, "I guess this is my avenue of breakthrough.
I even have it playing on repeat, road open, singing my eyes out so that the steering wheel is vibrating. The future is broad and promising four-minute wide. RISE did not simply write a song about breaking up, they had that crazy adrenaline rush of being on your feet, sweeping off the dust and getting into the night when you suddenly realize who you are. Lost For Words is heartbreak made into velocity and when the final chord is out you need not wonder why you are already reaching out to press it again.
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