Portland’s “Exactly What I Need” is a radiant, life-affirming indie pop anthem that transforms pain into purpose – a cinematic, heart-on-sleeve reckoning with mortality, healing, and the beauty of simply being alive.

Stream: “Exactly What I Need” – Portland

“It’s comforting to realize that can be enough.”

There’s something breathtaking about hearing an artist confront their own mortality and still find beauty on the other side. Portland’s “Exactly What I Need” aches and shines in equal measure – a radiant, life-affirming anthem that finds light in the ruins, grace in the grief, and meaning in the small, ordinary moments that tether us to this world. It’s a song about what matters most when time feels fragile; about who we hold close, and how we choose to spend the days we’re given.

I’m gonna scream it all over the streets
This is exactly what I need
Please never tell me what I should do
‘Cause I’m throw it back to you
And I will hold on

Aah…
I won’t wait, it’s too late
Aah…
It’s quite right, it’s alright

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Exactly What I Need,” the exhilarating fourth single off Portland’s forthcoming third album Champain, out November 7 via [PIAS] Recordings. A soaring, cinematic eruption of indie pop, the track channels the Belgian band’s signature blend of melancholy and euphoria into something truly cathartic – a rush of sound and spirit that feels both deeply human and endlessly alive.

“In hindsight, it’s about exactly what I don’t need,” laughs frontman Jente Pironet. “In that dark period after my cancer diagnosis it felt like life was slipping through my fingers. I clung to escapism: Going out to bars and trying to forget. When I feel bad these days, I go out into nature or have a glass of rosé with my grandmother. They’re small things, but it’s comforting to realize that can be enough.”

So please correct me if I’m wrong
But I just wanna release what I feel in this song
You only live once, please leave me alone
Oh forever I wanna be in this zone
And I will hold on

That tension – between escape and acceptance, denial and surrender – thrums through every beat of “Exactly What I Need.” The pulsing drums, glistening guitars, and shimmering synths rise around Pironet’s aching voice, capturing the urgency of someone refusing to waste another second. “I’m gonna scream it all over the streets,” he declares in the chorus, his delivery bursting with life, hunger, and hope. The result is an anthem as triumphant as it is tender: A reminder that the simplest things – sunlight, music, human connection – can be salvation enough.

Aah…
I won’t wait, it’s too late
Aah…
It’s quite right, it’s alright
Aah…
I won’t wait, it’s too late

Like the best of Arcade Fire, The Killers, or Broken Social Scene, Portland fuse grandeur with intimacy, turning personal catharsis into communal release.

Their music invites us to dance and to feel, to sing and to heal. And as Champain approaches, it’s clear that this band has turned pain into purpose, transforming hardship into something luminous.

Let “Exactly What I Need” fill you up, and remind you what’s worth holding onto. Stream the song – and its intimate, up-close and personal music video – exclusively on Atwood Magazine!

— —

:: stream/purchase Exactly What I Need here ::

:: connect with Portland here ::

:: stream/purchase CHAMPAIN here ::

— —

Stream: “Exactly What I Need” – Portland

— — — —

Connect to Portland on
Facebook, 𝕏, TikTok, Instagram

Discover new music on Atwood Magazine

 © Titus Simoens & Nina Swaans

:: Stream Portland ::