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Feb 21, 2025 Web Exclusive By Michael James Hall

Porridge Radio’s latest offering is also their last. A set of four tracks drawn from the sessions for last year’s wonderful Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There For Me album, the Brighton 4-piece use this release to both clear the table and offer a final morsel to their fans.

Lead track “Machine Starts to Sing” offers a glimpse of the band under the looming shadow of Radiohead. Dana Margolin’s guitar lurches and crawls beneath eerie lines such as “If you lie very still it won’t happen to you.” Georgie Stott’s backing vocals are both haunting and unsettling, doubling Margolin in alienation. Drummer Sam Yardley drives the band to a stretch of controlled chaos, the listener finally untethered as bassist Dan Hutchins wanders wildly.

That length and cacophony are contrasted by the following “OK,” a simple, soft acoustic shuffle tastefully augmented by warming keys and is, with a chorus of “No, no, no” as direct as it gets. Margolin’s knack for nursery rhyme clarity clicks with “Teacher, teacher why are you dressed in black / Because my mother had a heart attack.” Populated by shameful priests, screaming babies, and preachers “dressed in rags” it’s both vivid and succinct.

“Don’t Want to Dance” is a recent live favourite, and resonates similarly to their stunning single “Back to the Radio” from 2022. Margolin’s voice crackles, cracks, and wrenches every drop of bittersweet emotion from lines like “I don’t wanna dance / But I don’t want to cry about it / Think I’ve taken all that I can take.” The band builds as her litany lifts and finds release in a wordless final refrain.

Lastly, “I’ve Got a Feeling (Stay Lucky)” kicks against its delightful title, with a chorus of “What should I do with my life? Do nothing.” Stott’s keys beautifully assist the ebb and flow of Margolin’s eloquent, melancholic voice. Musically cataclysmic, it captures Porridge Radio’s rare ability to rouse and move the listener, the complex interplay of poetry and sound so evocative, yet simultaneously intangible. You may wish to view it as a microcosm of their body of work: funny, raw, literary rock music crafted so beautifully as to appear haphazard.
Never shying away from the ugliness of love, never removing the romance from the mundane, Porridge Radio have been a flickering, warm light these past years. It’s sad to see that light go out, but at least we have this last moment of illumination. (porridgeradio.com)

Author rating: 8/10