289 products
Come on Feel - 30th Anniversary
Regular price $40.00 Save $-40.00Expanded 30th anniversary re-issue of The Lemonheads’ classic 1993 album. The breakthrough record that took American alt rock global and catapulted Evan Dando into the hearts of a generation. With a wealth of unreleased demos, alternative versions and rarities - including covers of Victoria Williams, Buddy Holly and The Flying Burrito Brothers plus the Cole Porter standard ‘Miss Otis Regrets’.
In the 90’s Evan’s Lemonheads produced hit after a hit, a string of super cool singles: ‘Big Gay Heart’, ‘Into Your Arms’, ‘It’s About Time’, and ‘The Great Big NO’. Pure genius filling the radio waves and taking the stage... Some 30 years on; Evan is still knocking that song writing thing out of the park and ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ sounds as fresh and perky as it ever did. Amid the hits on the original record are stencils and outlines for yet more magical music and now this deluxe edition adds a second disc of demos and acoustic versions, plus a host of one-offs from sessions and compilations that add further colour to the myth and how it was created.
There’s the cover of Victoria Williams’ ‘Frying Pan’ from her ‘Sweet Relief’ album, which is joined by an eclectic set of flipsides and out-takes, like their version of ‘Little Black Egg’ by The Nightcrawlers, Evan’s homage to Gram Parsons on the winsome ‘Streets Of Baltimore’ and Buddy Holly’s melancholy ‘Learning The Game’. Evan knows a good song when he hears it, as ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ certainly proved.
“Come On Feel was home to some of his best, sharpest writing – fabulous sunny powerpop and beautiful ballads” The Guardian
Electric Youth
Regular price $38.00 Save $-38.00The Art of Forgetting (Colored Vinyl, Green)
Regular price $32.00 Save $-32.00The time is now for Caroline Rose. Their last record, Superstar, was released on March 6, 2020. The record was critically acclaimed and positioned Rose as the next big breakthrough in music. Needless to say, the resulting pandemic grinded all momentum to a halt while at the same time throwing Rose's personal life into turmoil. The result of that turmoil is the fuel that fired the creation of their latest album, The Art of Forgetting. With The Art of Forgetting, Rose took on the dual role of writer and producer. The album encapsulates the feeling of experiencing recent memories, having them turn into old ones and then ultimately forgetting those memories altogether. There is a romantic nature within the sonic landscape of this record. Tape effects and loops emulate the feeling of aging while the juxtaposition of modern acoustic-electronic textures, like lo-fi tape next to hi-fi granular synths result in some of their most mature and honest work to date.
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 Love / Lover / Friend
- 2 Rebirth
- 3 Miami
- 4 Better Than Gold
- 5 Everywhere I Go I Bring the Rain
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 The Doldrums
- 2 The Kiss
- 3 Cornbread
- 4 Stockholm Syndrome
- 5 Tell Me What You Want
- - Disc 3 -
- 1 Florida Room
- 2 Love Song for Myself
- 3 Jill Says
- 4 Where Do I Go from Here?
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Original Soundtrack)
Regular price $40.00 Save $-40.00WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story stars Daniel Radcliffe as “Weird” Al Yankovic in the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time. From a conventional upbringing where playing the accordion was a sin, Al rebelled and made his dream of changing the words to world-renowned songs come true. An instant success and sex symbol, Al lives an excessive lifestyle and pursues an infamous romance that nearly destroys him. The movie is available to stream on the Roku Channel or online via Roku, Fire TV or Samsung devices.
WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story (Original Soundtrack) features 46 tracks - a mix of “Weird Al’s” greatest hits (some newly recorded; some classics), a new song “Now You Know,” various artists’ tracks, interstitial bits from the film, and the film’s score from Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (the team behind the score for the Netflix blockbuster Cobra Kai) lovingly compiled on 2-LPs housed in a gatefold package on glorious coral color vinyl.
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 You Don't Know Anything (Dialogue) - Diedrich Bader
- 2 My Bologna - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 3 I Love Rocky Road - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 4 Another One Rides the Bus - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 5 Eat It - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 6 Like a Surgeon - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 7 Amish Paradise - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 Now You Know - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 2 Dr. Demento Opening Theme (Pico & Sepulveda) - the Roto Rooter Goodtime Christmas Band
- 3 Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel) - Cory Pesaturo
- 4 Helena Polka - Cory Pesaturo
- 5 The Chicken Dance Aka the Bird Dance - the Emeralds
- 6 Clarinet Polka - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 7 Beat on the Brat - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 8 Bowling with the Devil - Skunk Barf
- 9 The Cobra Pit
- 10 Demento's Pool Party
- 11 You're All a Bunch of Slaves (Instrumental) - "Weird Al" Yankovic
- 12 Guadalajara - César Ramírez, Omar Estrada, & Cesar Chavira
- - Disc 3 -
- 1 Back from the Dead
- 2 Weird
- 3 The Accordion
- 4 Hay Boy
- 5 The Closet
- 6 Epiphany
- 7 Cracked the Code
- 8 On the Spot
- 9 A Rare Gift
- 10 My Parents
- 11 Write Your Own Songs
- 12 LSD Trip
- 13 Al and Madonna
- 14 A Parody of "Eat It"
- - Disc 4 -
- 1 Drunk Driving
- 2 You're All I've Got
- 3 Diner Kidnapping
- 4 Heart of the Jungle
- 5 Certified Platinum
- 6 It's All Business
- 7 The Factory
- 8 Dad Apologizes
- 9 Raised Amish
- 10 It's Nothing
- 11 Would You Be My Son?
- 12 Al's Speech
- 13 In Memoriam
Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished
Regular price $39.00 Save $-39.002023 Vinyl 2LP Reissue with Remastered Audio and New Artwork
Chiming laments for a childhood's end, the debut album from Animal Collective, Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished opens with the phrase "want to hear a secret, I know one," suggesting these secrets just might be buried deep within the flocks of high frequencies, electronic glitches, bleeps and swells that follow. Originally released in 2000 and credited to Avey Tare & Panda Bear prior to the full, collective band name being used on releases, this reissue features remastered audio and new artwork by Abby and Dave Portner.
- Spirit They've Vanished (Remastered 2023)
- April And The Phantom (Remastered 2023)
- Untitled (Remastered 2023)
- Penny Dreadfuls (Remastered 2023)
- Chocolate Girl (Remastered 2023)
- Everyone Whistling (Remastered 2023)
- La Rapet (Remastered 2023)
- Bat You'll Fly (Remastered 2023)
- Someday I'll Grow To Be As Tall As The Giant (Remastered 2023)
- Alvin Row (Remastered 2023)
Sea Change
Regular price $35.00 Save $-35.00Limited double vinyl LP pressing including digital download. Beck's seventh album, Sea Change, signified a dramatic musical shift in sound and tone from it's predecessor, the funky, R&B-influenced Midnite Vultures, and as it's title suggested, was a profound transformation. Inspired by the dissolution of a longtime relationship, Beck transformed his sadness into both his most personal and beautiful record to date, trading his trademark sample-filled songs and impressionistic, irreverent lyrics for pensive melodies, sweeping strings and direct, confessional lyrics. Produced by Nigel Godrich, the album, which peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200, was made with a full band which included guitarist Smokey Hormel, keyboard player Roger Manning, drummer Joey Waronker; Beck's father, David Campbell, provided string arrangements. While widely praised upon release in 2002, the album has only grown in stature. Rolling Stone's David Fricke hailed it as 'the best album Beck has ever made,' adding it's his Blood On The Tracks, and the record was listed in their 2009 definitive list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and the 100 Best Albums of the 2000s. In SPIN's 10-year anniversary piece, they declared it 'the best melancholy album of the millennium' while The Guardian called it 'his masterpiece.'
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 The Golden Age
- 2 Paper Tiger
- 3 Guess I'm Doing Fine
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 Lonesome Tears
- 2 Lost Cause
- 3 End of the Day
- - Disc 3 -
- 1 It's All in Your Mind
- 2 Round the Bend
- 3 Already Dead
- - Disc 4 -
- 1 Sunday Sun
- 2 Little One
- 3 Side of the Road
On Avery Island (Anniversary Edition)
Regular price $29.00 Save $-29.00Double vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold jacket. Includes insert and digital download. Jeff Mangum creates a world of his own on this amazing 1996 debut from Neutral Milk Hotel. On Avery Island is full of trombone, keyboards, overdriven acoustics, and beautiful songs. On this anniversary reissue, the complete version of "Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey's Eye" as originally intended completes the album.
- 1 Song Against Sex
- 2 You've Passed
- 3 Someone Is Waiting
- 4 A Baby for Pree
- 5 Marching Theme
- 6 Where You'll Find Me Now
- 7 Avery Island / April 1st
- 8 Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
- 9 Three Peaches
- 10 Naomi
- 11 April 8th
- 12 Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey's Eye
Ciao! Best Of (Red Vinyl)
Regular price $34.00 Save $-34.00- - Disc 1 -
- 1 Ladykillers
- 2 Single Girl
- 3 Ciao!
- 4 500 (Shake Baby Shake)
- 5 Light from a Dead Star
- 6 Love at First Sight
- 7 Hypocrite
- 8 Desire Lines
- 9 Lovelife
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 When I Die
- 2 Nothing Natural
- 3 Untogether
- 4 For Love
- 5 Monochrome
- 6 De - Luxe
- 7 Sweetness and Light
- 8 Thoughtforms
- 9 Etheriel
Shore
Regular price $30.00 Save $-30.00Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Includes poster. 2021 release, the fourth album from Fleet Foxes. The band's Robin Pecknold shares, "Shore feels like a relief, like you'd feel when your feet finally hit sand after getting caught in a riptide. It's a celebration of life in the face of death, honoring our lost musical heroes, from David Berman to John Prine to Judee Sill to Bill Withers, embracing the joy and solace they brought to our lives and honoring their memory. Shore is an object levitating between the magnetic fields of the past and the future." The album was recorded in upstate New York at Aaron Dessner's Long Pond Studio, in Paris at Studios St. Germain, in Los Angeles at the legendary Vox, in Long Island City at Diamond Mine, and New York City's Electric Lady.
- 1 Wading in Waist-High Water
- 2 Sunblind
- 3 Can I Believe You
- 4 Jara
- 5 Featherweight
- 6 A Long Way Past the Past
- 7 For a Week or Two
- 8 Maestranza
- 9 Young Man's Game
- 10 I'm Not My Season
- 11 Quiet Air / Gioia
- 12 Going-To-The-Sun Road
- 13 Thymia
- 14 Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman
- 15 Shore
Out-of-state Plates
Regular price $48.00 Save $-48.00Led by the scintillating songwriting team of Chris Collingwood and the late, great Adam Schlesinger, power pop maestros Fountains of Wayne put out a number of absolutely brilliant albums, of which we at Real Gone Music have been fortunate so far to reissue two, Welcome Interstate Managers and Traffic and Weather. But of all the great records released by this New York-area band, this one, the 2005 odds ‘n’ ends 2-CD set Out-of-State Plates, remained reportedly among the closest to the heart of Schlesinger, who died tragically of COVID in 2020. A mixture of demos, B-sides, live performances, and unreleased tracks (the great “Maureen” and “The Girl I Can’t Forget”), it’s an always entertaining, often hilarious, and (of course!) never less than tuneful romp through about a decade’s worth of recordings, all wittily annotated by Collingwood and Schlesinger. Covers both heartfelt and tongue-in-cheek (Jackson Browne’s “These Days” and Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time”) and holiday fare (“I Want an Alien for Christmas,” “Chanukah Under the Stars”) lie alongside such B-side gems as “Baby I’ve Changed” and “I’ll Do the Driving” and a live “She’s Got a Problem.” For its vinyl debut, we’ve created a fetching gatefold featuring the duo’s commentary inside, and pressed this 2-LP set in “Junkyard Swirl” vinyl to match the cover photo. Rummage around the collective psyche of one of the greatest indie rock acts of the last 30 years!
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 Number 45 Sunblock
- 2 Maureen
- 3 California Sex Lawyer
- 4 Janice's Party
- 5 Karpet King
- 6 Baby I've Changed
- 7 I Know You Well
- 8 You're Just Never Satisfied
- 9 I'll Do the Driving
- 10 Nightlight
- 11 I Want You Around
- 12 Trains and Boats and Planes
- 13 Places
- 14 Can't Get It Out of My Head
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 City Folk Morning
- 2 The Girl I Can't Forget
- 3 Baby One More Time
- 4 Elevator Up
- 5 Comedienne
- 6 Kid Gloves
- 7 Today's Teardrops
- 8 She's Got a Problem
- 9 These Days
- 10 I Want An Alien for Christmas
- 11 The Man in the Santa Suit
- 12 Chanukah Under the Stars
- 13 Killermont Street
- 14 Half a Woman
- 15 Small Favors
- 16 Imperia"
Express
Regular price $28.00 Save $-28.00Love And Rockets released their second album EXPRESS in 1986. It is a unique, mystical and transcendental travelogue of sorts. The original press release for the album said that “the balance of light and dark, positive and negative, yin and yang, is a recurring theme”. In 2020, NPR, referring to the album, stated that their “psychedelic train ride laid the foundation for alt-rock”.
- 1 It Could Be Sunshine
- 2 Kundalini Express
- 3 All in My Mind
- 4 Life in Laralay
- 5 Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)
- 6 Love Me
- 7 All in My Mind Acoustic Version
- 8 An American Dream
Left Of The Middle [Import]
Regular price $35.00 Save $-35.00- 1 Torn
- 2 One More Addiction
- 3 Big Mistake
- 4 Leave Me Alone
- 5 Intuition
- 6 Smoke
- 7 Pigeons and Crumbs
- 8 Don't You Think?
- 9 Impressed
- 10 Wishing I Was There
- 11 City
- 12 Left of the Middle
Mahal (Colored Vinyl, Silver) [Scratch and Dent]
Regular price $30.00 Sale price $20.00 Save $10.00Scratch and Dent:
Some Damage to Outer Sleeve-Vinyl is Unopened
Limited silver colored vinyl LP pressing. Toro y Moi's seventh studio album, Mahal, is the boldest and most fascinating journey yet from musical mastermind Chaz Bear. The record spans genre and sound-encompassing the shaggy psychedelic rock of the 1960s and '70s, and the airy sounds of 1990s mod-post-rock-taking listeners on an auditory expedition, as if they're riding in the back of Bear's Filipino jeepney that adorns the album's cover. But Mahal is also an unmistakably Toro y Moi experience, calling back to previous works while charting a new path forward in a way that only Bear can do. Mahal is the latest in an accomplished career for Bear, who's undoubtedly one of the decade's most influential musicians. Since the release of the electronic pop landmark Causers of This in 2009, subsequent records as Toro y Moi have repeatedly shifted the idea of what his sound can be. But there's little in Bear's catalog that will prepare you for the deep-groove excursions on Mahal, his most eclectic record to date.
Tracks
- 1 The Medium
- 2 Goes By So Fast
- 3 Magazine
- 4 Postman
- 5 The Loop
- 6 Last Year
- 7 Mississippi
- 8 Clarity
- 9 Foreplay
- 10 DÉJÀ Vu
- 11 Way Too Hot
- 12 Millennium
- 13 Days in Love
CHRISTMAS IN SEATTLE 1988 (BLACK VINYL) [Scratch and Dent]
Regular price $39.00 Sale price $29.00 Save $10.00Scratch and Dent merchandise - sustained minor superficial damage in shipping from supplier (corner bumps, cover creases or splits). Discounted appropriately. Item is still sealed and vinyl mint condition.
Side A : School / Love Buzz / Floyd The Barber / Mr. Moustache / Paper Cuts
Side B : Mexican Seafood / Spank Thru / Sifting / Hairspray Queen / Blew
Side C : Beeswax / Mexican Seafood / Pen Cap Chew / Mr. Moustache / Blandest / Downer
Side D : Floyd The Barber / Paper Cuts / Spank Thru / Sifting / Aero Zeppelin
Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Regular price $45.00 Save $-45.00180 gram audiophile vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics. The American alternative rock band New Radicals formed in 1997 in Los Angeles and was centered on front man Gregg Alexander, who wrote and produced all of their tracks. They only released one album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. The album was heavily influenced by rock and soul of the Seventies, containing strong criticism of corporate America.
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 Mother We Just Can't Get Enough
- 2 You Get What You Give
- 3 I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away the Ending
- 4 I Don't Wanna Die Anymore
- 5 Jehovah Made This Whole Joint for You
- 6 Someday We'll Know
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
- 2 In Need of a Miracle
- 3 Gotta Stay High
- 4 Technicolor Lover
- 5 Flowers
- 6 Crying Like a Church on Monday
Quiet The Room - Cloudy White
Regular price $28.00 Save $-28.00Helen Ballentine's spellbinding first full-length album Quiet the Room
is the sound of a window opening, a barrier dissolving. Across these fourteen tracks, the outside world seeps in and the inside world crawls out. The result is a stunning and quietly moving work that reflects the journeys we take through the physical and spiritual realms of ourselves in order to show up for the world. While writing the album in the summer of 2021, Ballentine drew inspiration from her childhood home in Mount Vernon, NY. What she set out to capture on Quiet the Room was not the innocence of childhood, as it is so often portrayed, but the intense complexity of it. Past and present merge Escher-like in this dreamlike space laced with elements of fantasy, magic, and mystery. Musically, this translates into a sound that feels somehow weighty and ephemeral all at once, like a time lapse of copper corroding. To capture the effortless blend of electronic, ambient, folk, and rock, Ballentine and her partner and collaborator Noah Weinman brought in producer Andrew Sarlo to record at Chicken Shack studio in Upstate New York, close to where Ballentine grew up. "We wanted every song to have that little twinkle, but also a sense of crumbling," she says. These songs thrum with moments of anxiety that boil over into moments of peace, as on lead single "Whatever Fits Together," which chugs to a ragged start before the gears catch and ease. On "It's Like a Secret," Ballentine struggles to connect and let people in, recognizing that no one can ever fully know our inner worlds and that to understand each other is to cross a barrier and leave a part of ourselves behind. And yet, on closing track "You are my House," she finds a way to reach out. "You are the walls and floors of my room," she sings in perfect, hopeful harmony. As the album cover invites, these are dollhouse songs to which we bend a giant eye, peering into the laminate, luminous world that Ballentine has created. Like a kid constructing a shelter in a patch of sharp brambles, she reminds us that beauty and terror can exist in the same place. The complexities of childhood are so often overlooked, but through these private yet generous songs, she gives new weight to our earliest memories, widening the frame for us-even opening a window.
- 1 They Quiet the Room
- 2 Building a Swing
- 3 Whatever Fits Together
- 4 Whistle of the Dead
- 5 Lullaby in February
- 6 Pass Through Me
- 7 Could It Be the Way I Look at Everything?
- 8 Outside, Playing
- 9 It's Like a Secret
- 10 Sticker
- 11 Window Somewhere
- 12 (Secret Instrumental)
- 13 Quiet the Room
- 14 You Are My House
The Last Amen
Regular price $42.00 Save $-42.00On November 15th of 1991, at the height of the band's musical powers, Chagall Guevara's live show was recorded to 24 tracks of analog splendor in front of a very rowdy hometown crowd at Nashville's legendary 328 Performance Hall. With the band's full cooperation, it has now been lovingly mixed by Russ Long, who began his illustrious career as a recording engineer and producer by mixing Chagall Guevara's live shows. That live album, now entitled The Last Amen, is finally ready to be heard.
Voyager
Regular price $28.00 Save $-28.00Double vinyl LP pressing. 311 are back with their 13th studio album Voyager, which features 13 new songs, four of which were recorded with Grammy-nominated producer John Feldmann (Blink-182, Panic! At the Disco) and nine of which were recorded with longtime collaborator/live engineer Scotch Ralston, who produced 311 albums Transistor, Soundsystem and Stereolithic.
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 Crossfire
- 2 Don't You Worry
- 3 Stainless
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 Space and Time
- 2 Dream State
- 3 Good Feeling
- - Disc 3 -
- 1 What The?!
- 2 Better Space
- 3 Dodging Raindrops
- - Disc 4 -
- 1 Rolling Through
- 2 Born to Live
- 3 Charge It Up
- 4 Lucid Dreams
Bummed
Regular price $32.00 Save $-32.00London Records present the first vinyl reissue of Happy Mondays' Bummed, originally released in 1988. Like many an influential album in rock history, the cultural significance of Happy Mondays' Bummed was apparent to precious few listeners upon it's first release on November 5th, 1988. Within a decade or two, Bummed would be hailed as one of the best records of the '80s, often by the self-same publications that had slated it back in the day - a harbinger of the seismic shift about to take place in British popular music, away from the squeaky-clean, corporately ordained pop-radio fodder which had increasingly dominated the charts since punk, and back towards the more aggressive, unruly, and experience-hungry urges which had always pulsed through rock n' roll. Artwork lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design. Featured the singles "Wrote For Luck" and "Lazyitis - One Armed Boxer". 180 gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve with embossing; printed inner-sleeve; includes download code.
- - Disc 1 -
- 1 Country Song
- 2 Moving in with
- 3 Mad Cyril
- 4 Fat Lady Wrestlers
- 5 Performance
- - Disc 2 -
- 1 Brain Dead
- 2 Wrote for Luck
- 3 Bring a Friend
- 4 Do It Better
- 5 Lazy Itis
Strangeland
Regular price $30.00 Save $-30.00Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing housed in gatefold jacket. Strangeland is Keane's fourth studio album. Originally released in May 2012 it charted at #1 and has gone on to sell over 200k in the UK. It also charted at #1 in Ireland and the Netherlands whilst in the US it peaked at #17. Produced by Dan Grech-Marguerat the album includes three singles: 'Silenced By The Night', 'Disconnecte'd and 'Sovereign Light Café'.
- 1 You Are Young
- 2 Silenced By the Night
- 3 Disconnected
- 4 Watch How You Go
- 5 Sovereign Light Café
- 6 On the Road
- 7 The Starting Line
- 8 Black Rain
- 9 Neon River
- 10 Day Will Come
- 11 In Your Own Time
- 12 Sea Fog
Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky (Forest Green)
Regular price $27.00 Save $-27.00When Porridge Radio's Dana Margolin, one of the most vital new voices in rock, began to consider the themes of their new album, three vivid words emerged: joy, fear and endlessness. She had called the band's third full-length, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky, an image that's partly inspired by a collage by the surrealist artist Eileen Agar, and evokes the ducks and dives, slippery slopes and existential angst of life. But Dana was also drawn to the story of Jacob's Ladder from the Old Testament which, "symbolises the ups and downs of human life, of virtue and sin," she explains. This idea that no one emotional state is binary came like a lightning bolt. "Within this album the feelings of joy, fear and endlessness coexist together," says Dana. That mix of emotions has defined Porridge Radio's past two years to say the least. It's a strange sensation, becoming a breakthrough band who are breathlessly championed by every major music site, without being able to experience any of it in the real world. When they released their 2020 album Every Bad, they were about to fly to South By Southwest, support Car Seat Headrest across the States, and then tear up the festival circuit back home. But it was all cancelled due to the pandemic. In spite of that, they've managed to become one of the UK's most thrilling acts, from DIY darlings to a Mercury-nominated tour de force in the space of less than a year. Perhaps that's because their barbed wit, lacerating intensity and potent blend of art-rock, indie-pop and post-punk sounds like little else around. For Dana and drummer Sam Yardley, keyboardist Georgie Stott and bassist Maddie Ryall - who met in Brighton and formed a band in 2014 - global recognition had been a long time coming, after years of booking their own tours and self-releasing their music. But in some ways, Dana welcomed the pause. She had been struggling to reconcile the lo-fi Dana of the Brighton scene with Bona Fide Indie Star Dana, hurtling into a new league - not only a musician but an artist in every sense, who has painted all three of Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky's expressive covers. Suddenly, there were magazine covers instead of fanzines. Then lockdown landed. "It's actually terrifying to be seen," she says. "I was having panic attacks all the time, because I was aware of being perceived in a new way." Margolin was quickly becoming regarded as one of the most magnetic band leaders around with an ability to "devastate you with an emotional hurricane, then blindside you with a moment of bittersweet humour" (NME). But if Every Bad established Dana's bravery in laying herself bare, her band's third record takes that to anthemic new heights. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky is the sound of someone in their late twenties thrashing out how they feel during these confusing, frustrating, stop-start years, facing down the disappointment of love, and life, and figuring out how to exist in the world, without claiming any answers. Dana's songwriting and delivery is more confident, with the emotional incisiveness of artists like Mitski, Sharon Van Etten and Big Thief. While there are moments of guttural release, she also finds soft power on songs like the piano-led 'Flowers' and the closing title track, where she sings over an acoustic guitar. "I used to think I had to be loud to be heard," she admits, "but now I'm definitely less afraid of being gentle." Thematically, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky is as unwavering as ever. Existential dread, death, health anxiety, loneliness and the comfort of connection are wrangled with. Dana's streams of consciousness turn the mirror, often unflatteringly, on her weaknesses and she attempts to take ownership of her "bad habits". "I'm embarrassed by how vicious I can be sometimes," she admits. The songs have a physicality about them, a fleshy rawness, but they're also open to risk, dealing with the powerful catharsis that occurs when you allow the full intensity of an experience to take hold - perhaps something that we instinctively resist. "Most people are terrified about confronting emotion," says Dana, "or of reckoning with yourself. But writing has always been a place where I can lean into that." It's what's always set them apart from their peers in UK guitar music and on WSDBLTTS they sound more in line at times with the American emo greats. "We're making music in a scene that is very emotionally repressed," she continues, "sometimes if I listen to nu-metal or emo lyrics, I find that we seem to fit in better emotionally in that world. They're as cringe as me. ' The band's first new single, 'Back To The Radio', sets out their stall, a lurching call to arms that contrasts Dana's lyrics of panic and closing herself off - "lock all the windows and march up the stairs" - with a rousing end-of-night chorus made for clutching your friends closely. The band's sound, co-produced by Tom Carmichael, Dana and drummer Sam Yardley, has also stepped up: it's panoramic and sparkling, elevated by ambitious instrumentals. "I kept saying that I wanted everything to be 'stadium epic', - like Coldplay," says Dana, with a knowing smile. If that sounds like a jarring proclamation then a glance over the list of references whose names came up during the creative process - first at PRAH Studios in Margate and then at Eastbourne's Echo Zoo - reveals influences as varied as Bruce Springsteen, Beach House, Carly Rae Jepsen and Brighton alt-poppers The Go! Team. WDBLTTS never sounds studied - the band has distilled their myriad influences into a sound that's unequivocally Porridgey - although some songs have clearer outlines. They describe 'Jealousy' as Deftones meets Portishead, with it's trip-hop crunch, ghostly piano and careening wall of static. The album's climactic single 'The Rip', possibly their most ambitious song yet, with it's gloriously widescreen distortion that does exactly as the title suggests, is their attempt to do a Charli XCX-sized pop take on alt-rock. These were opportunities for Dana to test her limits as a musician. "My guitar playing got stronger, I was writing parts I didn't know how to play and then having to learn them," she says. "I tried to push myself out of my comfort zone all the time. If you listen to our debut album [2015's Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers], the songs are good but there's a recklessness to them because I was so keen to finish them quickly and move on to the next. This time I was trying to exercise patience." WDBLTTS also explores something that Porridge Radio are perhaps less known for: playfulness. They created a junk-shop drumkit out of "metal ashtray buckets from the car yard outside the studio", which you can hear on 'I Hope She's OK 2' and 'Trying'. The playful wibble of the synthesiser punctuates songs with jangle-pop - and that playfulness extends to their visuals, too, like the pastel papier-mâché world, created by Dana's sister Ella, of the 'Back To The Radio' video. "I think the album needed to have that balance," Dana explains, adding that it reflects how she moves through the world: "If I'm broken down on the floor crying, of course I need compassion, but I also need people to laugh at me and with me, I need to be reminded how absurd everything is." Balance: that's the word that Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky seems to be eternally striving for - joy, fear and endlessness in harmony. But there's also self-acceptance. Dana is more aware of how she's creating a persona as her star continues to rise, and how she's singing personal songs that now belong to other people. She's had people tell her that her Every Bad got them through their cancer diagnosis, their break-up, their isolated lockdown. But now she feels it gives her purpose. "It makes me think, 'Okay, there's some use in this self indulgent thing I'm doing'," she says. "I wrote these songs for myself but I think everyone wants to feel like what they're doing is useful in some way. I'm learning to embrace both now, the parts that are for me, and the parts that are for everybody else."
- 1 Back to the Radio (Physical Version)
- 2 Trying Birthday Party
- 3 End of Last Year
- 4 Rotten
- 5 U Can Be Happy If U Want to
- 6 Flowers
- 7 Jealousy
- 8 I Hope She's Okay 2
- 9 Spintered
- 10 The Rip Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky