The London band fronted by the passionate singer-songwriter Dana Margolin return with a fourth indie album of angst-ridden intensity, using her signature repetitive phrasing, vivid lyrics and emotional dynamics. Following a break for exhaustion after almost a decade of albums and touring and some solo work, extremity of feelings and energy don’t seem to have wained, and with opener Anybody (“And I will run until I can leave you / And I ran and I screamed and I sobbed and I fell”) already turned right up to 10, it makes us wonder how much more this could be sustained, with Margolin’s voice sometimes at tearful breaking point. But that is the band’s style, buoyed by orchestral strings as well as the core instruments. It’s very much a full-on experience and expression of inner torment, particularly God of Everything Else, a song of relationship schism taken to the next level: “You'll be hit by a wave of me / I'm the God of everything else/ You're the God of losing me / Don't need to know where you are/ You'll be hit by a wave of me/ I'm the God of everything else / You're the God of losing me … It was a sick, sick, sickness loving you / I wake up choking on dreams of you/ I wake up crying from loving you / I go everywhere just to get away from you.” Emotions on the poetic Lavender, Raspberries take on an almost existential, dream-like level with very evocative, beautiful phrasing and images: “Then I have the urge to jump off the balcony /Land with a splash where passersby will be / River below, carry me home, gently … I am a bumper car, I am a one-way street / I am the place where the roof meets the trees / It comes through the door and it sings back the melody / Comes through the door and it sits down to eat.” And the album concludes with I’m Sick of The Blues, which, while about moving on and feeling better, feels classic Porridge Radio, stirring and yet double-edged and repetitive in circularity: “I'm sick of the blues / I'm in love with my life again / I'm sick of the blues / I'm in love. / I'm sick of the blues/ I'm in love with my life again/ I'm sick of the blues/ I love you more than anything else.” Strong work with powerful emotions and melodies, and the listening experience feels like intense therapy session. Out on Secretly Canadian.
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