Porridge Radio is back with their fourth album, Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me, their third on the Secretly Canadian label.

Frontwoman Dana Margolin’s penchant for tumultuous, discordant endings hasn’t gone anywhere in the two years since the group’s last record, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky. There are echoes of 2020’s Every Bad, calling to mind songs like “Circling” and “Long” in the new ones “God Of Everything Else” and “Sick Of The Blues.”

The record closes with “Sick Of The Blues,” deceptive at first listen in its repeating mantra, “I’m in love with my life again.” A closer look at Margolin’s lyrics reveal her to be clinging to memories of someone, perhaps a former version of herself, a version that had, perhaps, been undeterred by the trials of the music industry, a topic that Porridge Radio’s Spotify bio cites the band as exploring on CITSTWABTFM. “And I try to find you/But I don’t know where you’ve gone/And I try to find you/But I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

There’s a chance that this isn’t a bad sentiment. Maybe Margolin has emerged from her decade as an independent artist stronger and she’s rejoicing rather than lamenting. But then again, maybe not. It’s the same with the album’s title. At first glance, it’s a dreary observation of the world around oneself. At second glance, it’s an acceptance that chasing dreams and chasing love doesn’t come without pain and heartbreak. This is Porridge Radio’s first record on the other side of Margolin’s thirties, fitting in the way it explores themes that can only be observed by the truly experienced.

Margolin’s apparent compromise with struggle and hardship is on full display at the end of the sullen “Wednesday.” Here, sunlight acts as the promise of a brighter future, and shadows stand in as reminders of past experiences. “Oh shadow/You’ll always be there for me.” Phrasing this in such a way is a beautifully poetic signifier that Margolin isn’t entirely uncomfortable with holding onto the past in the interest of personal growth. Rather than choose to wallow in the errors of yesterday, Margolin is acknowledging their usefulness in self-exploration. For a musician to search this deeply inside themselves makes any of the work to come out of it a true odyssey, and in that fact lies the importance of a record like CITSTWABTFM. It’s much less of a record than it is a journey set to music.

order Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me HERE