Brighton, UK-based band Porridge Radio today announces their debut studio album, Every Bad, out March 13th on Secretly Canadian, and North American tour dates. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they share a Sam Hiscox-directed video for new single, “Sweet.”
Following lead single, “Lilac,” “a late song of the year contender” (Paste), “Sweet” is a creeping self-examination, striking in its minutely observed details. “‘Sweet’ is a song about holding grudges and learning how to have fun and letting go of an old version of yourself,” says lead singer Dana Margolin. “I was feeling light-hearted when I wrote it, but when we came together to play it as a band, it suddenly felt really dramatic and exciting. When we play it live, the energy in the room always feels really intense, and then suddenly we just explode altogether and it always feels really good.”
While the band have self-released numerous demos and a garden-shed-recorded album (2016’s Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers) on Memorials of Distinction, Every Bad is a culmination of what has been in their head for some time; the record they have been waiting for the means to record. It arrives full of grand, sweeping ambition – with vocals so urgent that it often feels like it is moved by compulsion rather than choice, with all the rawness of early Karen O, and influences as disparate as Charli XCX and The Cranberries.
Margolin formed Porridge Radio after she performed bedroom-recorded songs to rooms of polite, unassuming audiences at open mics, who stared at her quietly while she screamed in their faces. She decided to start a band through which to channel her new love of performing and songwriting – and be noisier while she was at it. Inspired by relationships, her environment – in particular the sea – and her growing friendships with new bandmates (bassist Maddie Ryall, keyboardist Georgie Stott, and drummer Sam Yardley) Margolin’s distinctive, indie-pop-but-make-it-existentialist style soon started to crystallize. Their tireless touring in the UK cemented their reputation as one of the country’s most compelling live bands.
Oscillating between desperation, resignation, and, crucially, hope, Porridge Radio’s unmistakable take on pop music is like a jewelry box twinkle just out of kilter. A testament to her visionary tools, Every Bad is, for Margolin, “an unfinished sentence.” In a practical sense, it’s both a culmination – of everything the band have learned about themselves and about making music since they formed – and a sign of all that’s to come. But emotionally, it’s also an attempt to acknowledge that no sentence is ever finished; that “things can be difficult, but they can grow, and be a hundred different things at the same time.”
Though these songs are deeply personal explorations, expressed via a weird, beautiful musical language all Porridge Radio’s own, they extend a hand to every listener who has felt conflicted, held two feelings in their hearts at once, or flailed around the depths of their own choices and relationships. For those of us who know how that feels, Every Bad is a funny, profound little comfort.
Porridge Radio will make their US debut this spring, where they will play SXSW, Brooklyn’s Elsewhere, and Los Angeles’ Morrocan Lounge. Tickets are on sale and all dates can be found below.
Watch Porridge Radio’s Video for “Sweet” –
Watch the Video for “Lilac” –
Pre-order Every Bad –
Porridge Radio Tour Dates (new dates in bold):
Tue. January 14 – London, UK @ The Lexington
Thu. Feb. 27 – Sat. Feb. 29 – Oslo, NO @ Larm Festival
Mon. March 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
Fri. March 17 – Sat. March 22 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
Sun. March 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Thu. March 26 – Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen
Fri. March 27 – Liverpool, UK @ Studio 2
Sat. March 28 – Bristol, UK @ Ritual Union Festival
Sun. March 29 – Glasgow, UK @ Glad Café
Tue. March 31 – Sheffield, UK @ Record Junkee
Wed. April 1 – London, UK @ Colours
Fri. April 3 – Hastings, UK @ Marina Fountain
Sat. April 4 – Brighton, UK @ The Westhill Hall
Fri. May 22 – Sun. May 24 – Totnes, UK @ Sea Change Festival
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