Porridge Radio return with the new single/video, ‘The Rip’, taken from their forthcoming third studio album, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky, out 20th May on Secretly Canadian. Following lead single ‘Back To The Radio’, ‘The Rip’ hums with widescreen distortion, and continues Porridge Radio’s streak of pairing rousing alt-rock with powerful visuals directed by Ella Margolin, the sister of frontperson Dana Margolin.
“‘The Rip’ was the last song to be finished for the album, and we finished it about a week before we went into the studio to record it in March 2021. We wanted it to sound like massive pop, like Charli XCX, but with the instrumentation of bands like Slothrust or Deftones. It took the longest a song has ever taken me to write lyrics for, and they took form over a few years. At the beginning it was a song about a power dynamic where I was in control, by the end it was about one where I had none. My friends always accuse me of making up idioms and using them like they are well known phrases and I think this song is full of those. I love the idea of something being sick at the seams, like it’s disintegrating from its core. I like things that are so simple they are universal. I wanted it to sound like when your heart breaks so badly that your entire body aches. I wanted it to feel like your soul is dropping out of your body.” – Dana Margolin
Porridge Radio – comprised of Margolin, drummer Sam Yardley, keyboardist Georgie Stott and bassist Maddie Ryall – are one of the most vital new voices in alternative music, having transformed from DIY darlings to a Mercury-nominated tour de force for their 2020 album, Every Bad, in the space of less than a year. If Every Bad established Margolin’s lemon-sharp, heart-on-sleeve honesty, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky takes that to anthemic new heights. Co-produced by Tom Carmichael, Margolin and Yardley, the album’s sound is panoramic and sparkling. It scores someone in their late twenties facing down the disappointment of love, and life, and figuring out how to exist in the world, without claiming any answers. It’s also catchy as hell.
Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky seems to be eternally striving for balance – joy, fear and endlessness in harmony. But there’s also self-acceptance. After struggling with reconciling the lo-fi Dana of the Brighton scene with her star rising, Margolin is more aware of how she’s creating a persona as her profile continues to rise, and how she’s singing personal songs that now belong to other people. “I wrote these songs for myself but I think everyone wants to feel like what they’re doing is useful in some way,” she says. “I’m learning to embrace both now, the parts that are for me, and the parts that are for everybody else.”
“[‘Back To The Radio’] is pure catharsis.” – The New York Times
“[‘Back To The Radio’] makes it clear that their moment is now.” – Pitchfork, Best New Track
Watch the “Back To The Radio” Video
Pre-order Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky
Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky Cover Artwork (by Dana Margolin)
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