Porridge Radio - Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky

Album Review

Jun 10

Porridge Radio

Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky

Margolin's memorable melodies and musings drive each song forward, with synths that force the mind to recall a time when MGMT dominated the airwaves.

The third full-length from Brighton's Porridge Radio is a table where everybody has a seat; indie-rock, post-punk, emo, and a host waiting to blow out the candles on their birthday cake as one guest screams ad infinitum, "I DON'T WANT TO BE LOVED" (that sure would be some Birthday Party…)

An opening track centered around a single chord's slow and steady strumming serves as a preamble to a moody tour de force where no emotion or sentiment will attempt to be hidden.

The lonely chord marches on, gradually joined by distant clanging and distorted guitars, humming and swelling through rich reverb, setting the stage for the record's opening lyrics as the strumming bleeds into the next track:

"Lock all the windows and march up the stairs,
and you're looking to me, but I'm so unprepared for it."

Dana Margolin's voice trembles under control through the delivery of the opening lines and shakes still as the song continues, though progressively finding power within itself.

While the lyrics can easily be perceived as the artist grappling with the newfound success and momentum that the British quartet has undoubtedly gained since their previous release, it could just as easily find a home in the heart of anybody struggling to cope with change.

The end of a relationship, the loss of a loved one, the whirlwind of everything as the world knew it was transforming during an unfamiliar and isolating pandemic.

Once again, there are many seats at this table.

Still though, Margolin persists in seeking solitude and opts for a different place to rest on “Back to the Radio”:

"Lock all the windows and shut all the doors,

and get into the house and lie down on the cold, hard floor

Talk back to the radio, think loud in the car,

I miss everything now. We're worth nothing at all."

Words still underscored by tastefully shaky delivery are almost belied by sweet and soothing synths dancing through delightful melodies in the background, parts that might fit somewhere on just about any indie-rock record.

The clever use of synths doesn't stop there, though, as the album is littered with upbeat flavorings and low hums that fill space and justify doing so.

The aforementioned “Birthday Party” serves as the heart of the album.

It offers a glimpse of a war inside one's own head; an obvious outward rejection of love or any feelings at all, and the pragmatic consideration that this total numbness and seclusion carries consequences to be feared ("I don't want to be forgotten, I don't want to be alone. A fear of death, a fear of dying.")

Tracks like “End of Last Year”, with its introduction of somber horns to the band's tool-belt, and “Flowers”, with its call to action "Come on, step up to it, plants do not water themselves," serve to remind the listener that halfway through the album they haven't heard everything that Porridge Radio has to offer in this effort just yet.

Slivers of verbal optimism and additional instrumentation find their way into tracks as a welcome contrast to the saliently sullen messages and standard guitar-bass-synth-drums accompaniment that dominate the first half of Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky.

The journey comes to a close with a title track that is as gloomy as it is unhurried.

The tune is brave and barebones, both in its lyrical vulnerability and its stripped-away sound, delivered the way it was likely written, just guitar and Margolin's voice, for the most part (just TRY to blame them for not resisting the urge to color the song with that synth.)

Overall ~vibe~: unabashedly British in the vocal style, with synths that force the mind to recall a time when MGMT dominated the airwaves, and drums that seem more than content to stay in the backseat of the mix and let Margolin's memorable melodies and musings drive each song forward.

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