Another Chance

Riot Son is our favourite indie artist, and with ‘Another Chance’ he’s done it again. ‘What Makes You Think’ has been in our playlists for months. This one earns its place with a scene you can picture before you’ve even finished the song. By the time you tell your friends a relationship is over, you’ve usually worked out how to tell the story. There’s the thing they said, the thing you finally said back, and the detail everyone agrees should have been a warning. Then, two days later, you’re on your way round to pick up a jumper and wondering whether to bring coffee. Riot Son makes room for that small, humiliating change of heart. In the bridge, a flash of defiance gives way to the admission that it still hurts. You can imagine repeating the first part to friends over a pint. The second is what you’d have trouble saying even to the person who needs to hear it. A breakup can be the first time you find out how much your friends remember. They remember the dinners you cancelled, the calls you made on the way home and the last time you said things would be different. Their relief can feel like one more thing you have to live up to. That’s where the title starts to do its best work. ‘Another Chance’ could be a plea from the person who’s been left. It could just as easily be what you’re asking of the friends who sat up with you last time, and who you suspect will sit up with you again. By the end, even the jumper feels like a flimsy excuse.