Porridge Radio – Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:31 minutes | 889 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Secretly Canadian
“All the songs started out as poems,” says Margolin of the work that became Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me (2024), “I wanted to challenge myself.” In a song, Dana argues, the writer can always hide behind the tricks of the music and well-worn techniques such as repetition. “In a poem, though,” says Dana, “it’s just words and that’s it.” Recorded in the Somerset countryside in early 2024 by longtime Big Thief and Laura Marling engineer Dom Monks, Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me is Porridge Radio’s new album and first new music in two years. The UK band’s new album is a coming-of-age moment inspired by burnout, the music industry, the brutal collapse of a relationship and – crucially – Dana’s own increasing immersion in her craft as an artist. “A lot of this album is about a more frenetic and desperate kind of love,” says Dana, “it is about completely losing my sense of self in a relationship, and the deep residue of insecurity and pain that lingered and clouded a new relationship.” Songs that were written as love songs – like In A Dream I’m A Painting – took on new meanings as Margolin viewed the songs with a new distance. “There was a lot of love and confusion, all interspersed with exhaustion and pain.”
The title of Porridge Radio’s latest album suggests a darkness: a sense of foreboding that belies hope. Indeed, band leader/singer Dana Margolin has said the theme is “about completely losing my sense of self in one relationship, and the deep residue of insecurity and pain that lingered and clouded a new relationship.” On “Lavender, Raspberries,” which is full of drama and more than a little goth, she imagines herself as giving and receiving bruises. “I am a bumper car/ I am a one-way street … I’ll never die,” Margolin sings on the track, particularly heavy on its full-thrust bridge. It’s post-emo without bells and whistles, just human power—blood, sweat and tears. When Margolin sings “You just don’t have the guts” on “God of Everything Else,” gilded by wistful strings, it could be a dare to the other person or a put-down for herself. Even in the midst of chaos, she can seem like a woman alone. As “A Hole in the Ground” marches to an amiable beat, sounding hopeful enough to rally the troops, and keyboardist Georgie Stott works to support her vocals with intriguing harmony, Margolin refuses to lean in. But this isn’t a one-woman show. Sacred-sounding “Wednesday” is a slow burn, the simmer stoked by Stott’s organ before it agitates to a crash-in—yet remains very much a ballad. “Sleeptalker” follows a similar formula, erupting into chaos with flugelhorn and trumpet and a frenzied pace. “In A Dream I’m A Painting” is, indeed, dreamy, drifting at a ghostly pace. “Anybody” starts off gentle, sweet and low, almost as if waking up—then you hear the drums click, stretching out of slumber, and everyone else joins in. There’s a great round robin between Margolin and Stott, the former so impatient, rushing to get the words out. “Trying to reach you,” rages Stott over and over, and it’s like you can actually hear a smile on the tipping point of hysterical laughter—or maybe laugh-crying. Margolin sounds like a storm brewing on “You Will Come Home”; “I would do anything to see what I’m waiting for” she repeats, impatience and desperation verging on agnosticism, but not quite ready to give up the faith. And punch-drunk closer “Sick of the Blues” ends things with pure hope: “I’m sick of the blues, I’m in love with my life again/ I’m sick of the blues, gonna give in to everything,” Margolin deliriously sings over a grunge crunch, her voice quavering, almost giggling, yowling before she cedes the floor to an incredibly elegant trumpet. – Shelly Ridenour
Tracklist:
1-1. Porridge Radio – Anybody (04:03)
1-2. Porridge Radio – A Hole In The Ground (03:07)
1-3. Porridge Radio – Lavender, Raspberries (03:04)
1-4. Porridge Radio – God Of Everything Else (03:24)
1-5. Porridge Radio – Sleeptalker (02:34)
1-6. Porridge Radio – You Will Come Home (03:58)
1-7. Porridge Radio – Wednesday (04:51)
1-8. Porridge Radio – In A Dream I’m A Painting (04:55)
1-9. Porridge Radio – I Got Lost (02:30)
1-10. Porridge Radio – Pieces Of Heaven (04:37)
1-11. Porridge Radio – Sick Of The Blues (03:23)
