Monday 7/13: Porridge Radio, Lala Lala—"Good For You"
Today, we share our thoughts on a collaborative single between the British indie band Porridge Radio and the Chicago indie project Lala Lala.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on a collaborative single between the British indie band Porridge Radio and the Chicago indie project Lala Lala.
Porridge Radio, Lala Lala—"Good For You"
Eric Bennett:
Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin and Lala Lala’s Lillie West feel like kindred spirits in a lot of ways. Both deeply talented musicians bubbling just under the surface while making icy, blustery rock. It feels natural that they would collaborate, especially since West has been working with a slew of artists like Grapetooth or Yoni Wolf. Their collaboration, “Good For You” highlights the similarities in their music. It chugs along, feeling both forlorn and menacing. Margolin’s demeanor is dismissive and a little judgemental, and rightfully so. The song more or less gestures at the futility of comfort in these troubling times. “If you could imagine the rest of your life, well good for you.” West doesn’t exactly get lost in the mix, so much as she colors in the background. In a landscape with supergroups like Boygenius, maybe it isn’t pure wishful thinking to say I’d like more from these two.
Eli Enis:
When Lillie West delivered her excellent Lala Lala record The Lamb in 2018, I didn’t peg her as such a prolific collaborator. But now that she’s worked with the three artists Eric mentioned above, including Porridge Radio, I’m totally sold. Her vocals can either be incredibly piercing or quite ethereal, so she can either command the forefront of a track or hang back comfortably and offer harmonic support. That’s what she does here with Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin, another powerful voice in contemporary indie-rock. For the most part, I think the two sound great swimming alongside one another in the mix, and the hook of this thing is absolutely biting. However, things do get a little messy in the track’s final third. The simple drum machine begins to speed up and resemble the build of an EDM drop, and as more layers of keys, vocals, and guitars pile on, everything starts to compete with one another. The whole thing was probably assembled over email and at some points you can kind of tell; as if the two of them were sending it back and forth, giddily adding embellishments that don’t really need to be there. I’m being nitpicky but these are two of the best emerging artists in indie-rock right now, so they’ve set the bar high. A one-off single is admittedly low stakes, so like Eric said, I’d love to hear what these two could flesh out on a whole EP.