Porridge Radio

★★★ Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky SECRETLY CANADIAN. CD/DL/LP

Crushing catharsis makes for an uneasy listen.

Few recent LPs have offered such harrowing accounts of personal destitution: on Porridge Radio’s third, Dana Margolin isn’t just reckoning with a break-up, but a near-total collapse in its wake. In a tone that trembles between despair and disgust, sarcasm and anguished sincerity, she rues that she cannot feel or taste; she sings of shame, peeling skin, and in Birthday Party turns “I don’t want to be loved” into a furious tirade. Unlike their bleak 2020 breakout Every Bad, the music offers a merciful contrast. The band’s Brighton roots are audible in the guitars’ tidal lurch and Saltwashed patina (and its echoes of Electrelane and Nick Cave); organs choogle sweetly on Back To The Radio and End Of Last Year, and even the self-lacerating Rotten tumbles warmly. Yet the prettiness somehow makes listening feel more voyeuristic.

Laura Snapes