Porridge Radio - Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky

There’s something quintessentially British (or specifically, English) about repressing one’s feelings.

We don’t like to make a fuss or, even worse, show weakness or indeed emotion. We must be stoic. We must keep our feelings in check and keep our own counsel. Obviously, it is and always has been incredibly unhealthy, but fortunately those perceptions are changing through the generations, even if the pace is glacial.

Of course the big losers are those who opt not to engage with their emotions, not least because they are denying themselves the cathartic release. Not so for Porridge Radio and specifically songwriter/singer Dana Margolin, who has a unique ability to harness the emotion and invigorate herself.

Not to say it’s pleasant experience. This, their third album, is stocked full of lyrics which make Margolin’s recent interactions seem unbearable.

She’s angry on ‘Birthday’ (‘I don’t wanna be loved’) as she rejects affection to the point of exhaustion, or despairing of her own worth on ‘Back To The Radio’: ‘I miss everything now, we’re worth nothing at all’. The climactic payoff, as the instruments try but fail to suppress her, is slightly undercut by somewhat fey keys, but the melodrama is engulfing.

https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2022/05/review-porridge-radio-waterslide/