RIOT SON’s newly released single “What Makes You Think” slips into the ear like a thought you didn’t expect to voice aloud: restless, exposed, and quietly insistent. It’s a track built on tension, but not the explosive kind; rather, the slow, internal pull of trying to understand another person while barely understanding yourself.
There’s a flicker of 80s unease: bright on the surface, shadowed underneath. The rhythm section walks with purpose, carrying a pulse that feels half-determined, half-uncertain, as though the song itself is pacing through late-night doubts. Over it all, RIOT SON delivers a vocal performance that balances sharpness with fragility. His tone never settles: hovering between sarcasm and sincerity, mirroring the contradictions at the heart of the lyrics.
You can hear the echoes of The Cars and The Police in the melody’s clean edges, the brooding influence of Interpol and Joy Division in its depth, and a more modern emotional layering inspired by figures like Joey Ramone, Elliott Smith, and Lil Peep. Yet none of these references overshadow the artist’s own presence. The sound is unmistakably his: lean, cinematic, and rendered with the solitude of a home studio surrounded by the shifting colors of Boone’s autumn.
Lyrically, the song circles around the fragile architecture of relationships: the way doubt sneaks in, how indecision becomes its own form of gravity, and how longing sometimes feels clearer than certainty. Instead of offering answers, RIOT SON turns the questions themselves into the emotional core, letting ambiguity resonate without forcing resolution.
As the track builds, its energy tightens rather than swells, reaching a crest that feels honest rather than dramatic. RIOT SON’s “What Makes You Think” ultimately captures the moment when introspection becomes unavoidable; a snapshot of emotional turbulence rendered in electrified, restless sound..
