B-Side Guys

Limerence operates like emotional quicksand—the more you struggle to understand whether your feelings are reciprocated, the deeper you sink into obsessive analysis of every gesture, every pause, every possibility that might confirm what you desperately want to believe. Riley Polanski has excavated this psychological territory with forensic precision, creating a sonic document of what it feels like to exist in permanent romantic purgatory.

The LA singer-songwriter approaches the subject with the kind of delicate detail that only comes from intimate familiarity with the condition. “Benched” doesn’t just describe limerence—it recreates the cognitive loop that defines it, where hope and despair chase each other in endless circles. Polanski’s production choices mirror this internal chaos, creating arrangements that feel simultaneously grounded and unmoored, reflecting the unstable emotional geography of loving someone who might not love you back.

he track’s indie pop framework provides structure for feelings that refuse to be structured, creating space where uncertainty can take recognizable musical shape.

What makes “Benched” particularly devastating is its acknowledgment that the uncertainty itself might be the point. Polanski captures how limerence functions as a form of emotional procrastination—as long as you’re unsure, you can avoid the potential devastation of definitive rejection. The title suggests not just romantic sidelines but active participation in your own emotional suspension, choosing the ache of waiting over the finality of knowing.

Positioned as the emotional midpoint of his EP, “Benched” serves as a hinge between hope and the “unraveling that follows.” Polanski has created a perfect crystallization of romantic limbo, proving that sometimes the most honest thing you can do is document your own delusion with absolute clarity.