Songfacts®:

• This kinetic track was released in 2021 but dates back to 2017, when Sub-Radio frontman Adam Bradley started working on the lyric. He told Songfacts the story behind it:
  
  "'What You Want To Hear' is my best effort at making sense of how I've been feeling for the past few years: like I'm losing my mind, but also that I have a lot to give to other people who might be hurting worse. When I started the lyrics in 2017, the first year of the Trump presidency, it felt like all my friends were 'broken' in some way. How do you handle that? I can be a terrible pessimist personally, but sometimes the way to take care of someone is just to give them good news. Just tell them what they want to hear.
  
  So there's really a lot of optimism in the song; 'water in the middle of the desert,' 'we're bigger than the fear.' But the bridge makes everything a little complicated, which I like. It's kind of struggling with the idea that maybe 'what you want to hear' is a good salve, but it doesn't really solve the underlying problems. That might take more than kind words."
• Sub-Radio is a six-member indie-pop group from Washington, DC. They released their first EP, Thoughts Lights Colors Sounds, in 2020, and spent that year building a following through livestreaming. "What You Want To Hear" was their first single following the EP, released in February 2021.
• The music video is an homage to their Reddit following, with the band performing from their livestreaming setup, but with array of scenes and costume changes.