The Brighton, UK-based band Porridge Radio released two great songs earlier this year, “Give/Take” and “Don’t Ask Me Twice,” and they’re wrapping up the year by releasing a stunning new single called “Lilac.”

It’s a step-up from even those two other 2019 songs, a five-minute build-up that erupts into a chaotically beautiful bash of noise. “I don’t want to get bitter/ I want us to get better/ I want us to be kinder to ourselves and to each other,” Dana Margolin repeats throughout it all, a aspirational mantra to take us into a new year. The song cuts off abruptly after the band pushes it as far as it can go.

“I was thinking about love and control and the things out of my control, and how fragile and incapable depression can make you feel,” Margolin said in a statement. “I was thinking about the way you can feel so close to someone that it’s like their body is your body, like there’s no separation between you, but you can’t stop things disintegrating.”

The band has signed with Secretly Canadian, and the label will presumably put out their follow-up to 2016’s Rice, Pasta, And Other Fillers next year. Watch a video for the track below, directed by El Hardwick.

TOUR DATES:
01/14 – London, UK @ The Lexington
02/27-29 – Oslo, Norway @ by:Larm Festival
03/13-22 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan Lounge (with Sorry)
03/23 – New York, NY @ Elsewhere (Zone One)
03/28 – Bristol, UK @ Ritual Union Festival
05/22-24 – Totnes, UK @ Sea Change Festival

“Lilac” is out now via Secretly Canadian.