Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me by Porridge Radio

Porridge Radio Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me

76
ChoruScore
9 reviews
Oct 18, 2024
Release Date
Secretly Canadian
Label

Porridge Radio's Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me lands as a potent study in wounded lucidity, where Dana Margolin's tremulous voice and vivid lyricism turn heartbreak into theatrical, often euphoric indie rock. Across professional reviews, critics praise the record's ability to move from intimate confession to cathartic release, and they consistently point to songs that crystallize that arc.

The critical consensus, drawn from nine professional reviews and a 75.89/100 consensus score, highlights several standout tracks as exemplars: “Anybody” repeatedly emerges as the urgent, plaintive opener; “Lavender, Raspberries” (also cited frequently) captures poetic fury and aching imagery; “Sick Of The Blues” closes the record with bruised rebirth; and “God Of Everything Else” and “You Will Come Home” are singled out for their volcanic intensity and meditative payoff. Reviewers note recurring themes - cloud and sky imagery, repetition as survival, longing and insecurity, and a shift toward quieter reflection in the back half - that give the album emotional shape and narrative momentum. Critics consistently praise Margolin's lyricism-as-poetry and the record's balance of raw guitar noise with moments of contemplative brass and strings.

Perspectives vary in degree but not in direction: some reviews celebrate the album as a high-water mark for the band, lauding its fury-and-sorrow dynamics and cathartic peaks, while a minority caution that the heavier production or repeated climaxes can feel exhausting. Taken together, the consensus suggests Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me is worth listening to for those seeking intense, literate indie rock and several unmistakable best songs. Below, the full reviews unpack how these tracks and themes shape Porridge Radio's latest emotional statement.

Critics' Top Tracks

The standout songs that made critics take notice

1

Lavender Raspberries

1 mention

"pushes Margolin...into gloomier territory"
Far Out Magazine
2

Anybody

9 mentions

"I don’t want to know anybody else"
New Musical Express (NME)
3

Lavender, Raspberries

7 mentions

"I am the asphalt, I’ll never die"
New Musical Express (NME)
pushes Margolin...into gloomier territory
F
Far Out Magazine
about "Lavender Raspberries"
Read full review
1 mention
80% sentiment

Track Ratings

How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.

View:
1

Anybody

9 mentions
100
04:03
2

A Hole In The Ground

5 mentions
86
03:07
3

Lavender, Raspberries

7 mentions
100
03:04
4

God Of Everything Else

8 mentions
100
03:24
5

Sleeptalker

5 mentions
81
02:34
6

You Will Come Home

8 mentions
100
03:58
7

Wednesday

7 mentions
60
04:51
8

In A Dream I’m A Painting

7 mentions
91
04:55
9

I Got Lost

4 mentions
15
02:30
10

Pieces Of Heaven

5 mentions
73
04:37
11

Sick Of The Blues

9 mentions
100
03:23

What Critics Are Saying

Deep insights from 10 critics who reviewed this album

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio feels lucid and in control on Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me, and the best songs on the album crystallize that balance of joy and despair. The review highlights “You Will Come Home” as a clear standout for its meditative line and urgency, while the opener “Anybody” sets the tone with pining, twinkling cacophony that lingers. Those two tracks, among others, illustrate why many will search for the best tracks on Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me - they pair Margolin’s aching talk-singing with euphoric, arena-tinged instrumentals to powerful effect.

Key Points

  • You Will Come Home is best for its meditative, urgent line and emotional clarity.
  • The album's core strengths are Margolin's aching talk-singing paired with euphoric, arena-tinged instrumentals and vivid sky/cloud imagery.

Themes

heartbreak lucidity hope and despair cloud/sky imagery slacker rock energy

Critic's Take

In a furious, image-rich turn, Porridge Radio's Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me centers its best tracks around unspooling pain into spectacle - notably “God of Everything Else” and “You Will Come Home”. Sasha Geffen frames “God of Everything Else” as less a breakup song than a hurricane, and praises the album's ability to let quiet hollows explode into feverish intensity. The review names “Pieces of Heaven” and “Sleeptalker” for their delicate arrangements and startling instrumental touches, balancing the record's more volcanic moments. Altogether the piece argues that the best songs on Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me turn private collapse into grand, combustible music that both wounds and dazzles.

Key Points

  • The best song, "God of Everything Else," is the album's emotional apex because it transforms hurt into a hurricane of sound and imagery.
  • The album's core strengths are Margolin's ferocious vocals, vivid poetic lyrics, and the dynamic contrast between quiet arrangements and explosive climaxes.

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio make a record that feels like touching an exposed nerve: Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me is at once heartbroken and hopeful, and the best tracks - notably “Anybody” and “Lavender, Raspberries” - deliver that gut-emptying catharsis. Dana Margolin’s patient, wiry guitar on “Anybody” drops into cacophony and dares her to up the emotional ante, while lines like "I am the asphalt, I'll never die" on “Lavender, Raspberries” slug you in the stomach. The record builds toward the stomping, euphoric closer “Sick Of The Blues”, which serves as a deliberate leap toward feeling OK and ties the album together. Overall the record is surprising, affecting and invigorating in its honesty, a high-water mark for the band.

Key Points

  • “Anybody” is the best song because its patient guitar and cathartic drop embody the album’s emotional power.
  • The album’s core strengths are its raw, coruscating guitar, candid lyrics, and surprising arrangements that turn heartbreak into invigorating honesty.

Themes

heartbreak hope emotional catharsis raw guitar noise dissociation

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio deliver on Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me with songs that turn repetition into survival, and the best tracks on the record - “Anybody”, “God Of Everything Else” and “In A Dream I’m A Painting” - are exquisite examples of that furious, weirdly euphoric indie rock. Damien Morris writes with an eye for how Dana Margolin scours recent relationships with a passion that can be exhausting, yet the album is carefully structured so you wade through emotional heavy weather before emerging into sunlight by the last track, “Sick Of The Blues”. The latter half’s vibe shift lets Margolin’s spiky poetry and contemplative brass shine, which is why those quieter moments feel like a revealing counterpoint to the combative guitars earlier in the record. This is a record whose best songs feel both relentless and consoling, the sort that make you understand why being the subject of Margolin’s affections must be slightly terrifying and deeply pleasing.

Key Points

  • The best song(s) turn repetition into cathartic survival, with “Anybody” standing out as an exquisite example.
  • The album's core strength is its blend of combative, euphoric guitars and quieter, spiky-poetry moments that resolve into a triumphant last track.

Themes

fury and catharsis heartbreak and survival repetition as euphoria shift to quieter reflection

Critic's Take

Elle Palmer's review presents Porridge Radio's Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me as a record anchored by Dana Margolin's trembling voice and poetic detail, and it names songs like “Anybody”, “Lavender Raspberries” and “Sick Of The Blues” as clear emotional high points. Palmer writes in a measured, admiring tone that emphasises repetition and urgency, arguing that the best tracks - notably “Anybody” and “Lavender Raspberries” - gradually build from calm to catharsis. The review keeps close to the album's intimate world, noting cinematic drums and gentle synths that uphold Margolin's confessions, which is why fans searching for the best songs on Clouds In The Sky will find those moments most rewarding.

Key Points

  • The best song, particularly “Anybody”, is the clearest demonstration of Margolin’s voice building calm into catharsis.
  • The album’s core strengths are Margolin’s trembling vocal delivery, poetic lyrical imagery, and carefully crafted instrumentation that supports emotional release.

Themes

emotional confession longing and insecurity literary imagery catharsis

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio never sounds quieter than when it is most ravaged, and on Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me Margolin’s best songs - notably “Anybody” and “Sick of the Blues” - pin the listener with a mix of romantic extremism and wounded catharsis. The opener “Anybody” holds the torch for all-consuming love, moaning its way through enmeshment and precariousness, while the hyper-hooky “Sick of the Blues” ends the record with a shattered, unhinged declaration that still somehow feels like a rebirth. Elsewhere, the steamy, angsty “Lavender, Raspberries” and the softer, redemptive “Wednesday” broaden the album’s emotional range, balancing fury and sorrow with bite and tenderness. This is a record that rages and weeps in equal measure, and its standout tracks are the ones that let that contradiction smolder loudest.

Key Points

  • The best song is the opener "Anybody" because it crystallizes Margolin's theme of romantic extremism and precarious enmeshment.
  • The album's core strengths are its raw emotional contrasts - fury and sorrow - delivered through ragged vocals and dynamic instrumentation.

Themes

tortured diarism heartbroken lovesickness grief fury vs sorrow redemption imagery

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio arrive on Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me with bruised urgency, and the best tracks - notably “God Of Everything Else” and “Sleeptalker” - form a relentless one-two punch that crystallizes the album. Dana Margolin's blistering, raw vocals make songs like “You Will Come Home” feel like catharsis in action, every line hurled with breathless clarity. The record leans heavier than past work, poems made song transforming heartbreak into a moving portrait of recovery and newfound equilibrium. This is an album where repetition becomes hypnotic, and the standout tracks earn their weight by pummeling feeling into focus.

Key Points

  • The best song pair, "God Of Everything Else" and "Sleeptalker", functions as the album's emotional crux and demonstrates Margolin's power.
  • The album's core strength is converting poems and raw, blistering vocals into cathartic, hypnotic indie rock that charts a recovery from burnout and heartbreak.

Themes

catharsis heartbreak recovery repetition raw vocals

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio's Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me finds its best songs in bruised intimacy and surging arrangements, notably “Anybody” and “Lavender, Raspberries”. Daisy Carter leans into the record's tide-like dynamics, praising the cresting opener “Anybody” for its urgent refrain and the haunting, raw sweep of “Lavender, Raspberries” as emblematic of Dana Margolin's depth. She flags quieter triumphs too - the strings-led resilience of “God Of Everything Else” and the emotional purgatory of “You Will Come Home” - as reasons these tracks stand out among the album's 11 poems. Overall, the critic presents the album as a slow, sure tilt toward light where ragged desperation becomes a quietly defiant hope on the closer “Sick Of The Blues”.

Key Points

  • The best song, especially “Anybody”, combines urgent refrain and swelling arrangements to capture the album's emotional crest.
  • The album's core strengths are Dana Margolin's poetic lyricism and a dynamic that moves from ragged desperation toward defiant hope.

Themes

resilience burnout heartbreak emotional survival lyricism-as-poetry

Critic's Take

Porridge Radio return with Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me, a reliably affecting set where songs like “A Hole In The Ground” and “Lavender Raspberries” show their dejected slacker indie at its most gripping. The record leans on Dana Margolin's cracked vocals and poetic lyrics, which radiate passion and melancholy while guitars slip between subtle, sombre and cathartic moments. It is not a radical reinvention, more a continuation of a run of consistently strong work, the kind that rewards repeated listens. Fans will love it, and newcomers drawn to the best tracks will find a stellar back catalogue to explore.

Key Points

  • A Hole In The Ground is highlighted as a prime example of the band’s dejected slacker indie and is recommended to listen to first.
  • The album’s core strengths are Dana Margolin's cracked, poetic vocals and the band’s consistently moody, cathartic instrumentation.

Themes

melancholy passion dependable consistency slacker indie/alt-rock poetic vocals