Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky is set to explore the trials and tribulations of being in your late twenties. An honest reflection of the disappointments of life and love, and a continuation of working how to just exist. As with all of their music, ‘Back To The Radio’ entwines gut wrenching ruminations with a sense of hope and light.
Lead singer Dana Margolin is known for her brutally candid and open songwriting style, and ‘Back To The Radio’ sees her baring her soul once more. In her signature understated yet powerful spoken word style of singing, ‘Back To The Radio’ sees Dana exploring feeling trapped and wanting to escape as she sings “Lock all the windows and march up the stairs // And you’re looking to me but I’m so unprepared for it.”
Opening with a growling guitar riff, Dana launches straight into action, dousing us in the intensity of her experiences. Her voice brimming with emotion, it’s as if Dana is singing to each listener individually, with intensity and care. Just as it seems that all is lost, the lighter keyboard melody chimes in, injecting a sense of hope. Keyboardist Georgie Stott’s light and airy playing contrasts to the moody edges of Dana’s vocal, encapsulating the duality and confusions of navigating your late twenties.
Many of us can relate to the line “I’m not the right man for this”, imposter syndrome slipping into our daily lives and undermining our achievements and confidence. Dana’s success as a songwriter is in these moments of ruthless honesty and her talent at channelling complex feelings into concise, impactful lyrics.
The building texture of the song mirrors the bubbling up and boiling over of emotions. Ever building towards the intense, goosebump-inducing final chorus that is bound to have crowds of fans lifting their arms up into the air as they scream the words back in a moment of total catharsis.
The song was written just before the release of Every Bad, speaking about this time Dana explained “I felt like a lot of things were coming that I wasn’t sure I knew how to handle. The song grew out of a feeling of intense loneliness and being unprepared for what everybody was promising me was about to happen – and a strong desire to escape without knowing what I wanted to escape to.” And, it’s within this feeling of not knowing where to turn to next that ‘Back To The Radio’ excels.
‘Back To The Radio’ was released alongside a one-shot music video, directed by Dana’s sister Ella. The video sees the band situated in a paper mache world, perhaps a nod to the sense of fragility and uncertainty that ‘Back To The Radio’ explores. As the song progresses, instrumentation building towards the epic final chorus, the video makes use of brilliant pathetic fallacy with flashing lightning bolts and swirls of paper autumn leaves whipping around Dana and the band. The DIY aesthetic of the video also tethers the group securely in their indie icon status.
Both self-assured and anxious, purifying and soothing ‘Back To The Radio’, sees Dana writing both for herself, and her legions of fans who find comfort in the band’s music. Moments for the two to collide are plentiful as the band have also announced the dates for their 2022 tour, including a smattering of intimate record store dates.
