Picture Parlour – Face In The Picture Review

What is discovering new bands about other than to brag down the pub of your run through the trenches of new releases? Picture Parlour is of a quality worth bragging about finding. Their latest release, Face in the Picture, does well to grow the image of the band as glam rock revivers. They are not just tricks of the 1970s but a marked push for theatrics. An opportune time to reignite imagery as a key factor, the music videos and flush of bright and glam colours, all make sense. Forget the stock images of people in beauty parlours and dig a little deeper into Google. Out you come with four new tracks, each of a defiant variety. There may be familiarity with a few of these, had you caught the band opening for The Last Dinner Party last year.  

Some did, and a smaller number came home that night with eight lighters for cigarettes they do not smoke. But they also returned to their cold flat with a changed mind. Where Norwegian Wood and Judgement Day failed to light a fire of interest, the latest Picture Parlour release spreads its wings and massages the grooves which needed more time to develop on their first singles. An EP release is always a refreshing mark, the band now has a firmer idea of what they wish to convey and how to go about doing it. For the likes of Face in the Picture it means leaning into those theatrics, the wilder tones and writing range from Katherine Parlour are the real draw. Sparks of those early influences can be heard in Face in the Picture. The EP manages to evade the trouble of leaning into those indie riffs of old and instead focuses on the shock maturity of this generation. 

Ronnie gets to grips with this best of all. Nostalgia before you hit your mid-20s is a horror, but Picture Parlour comes closer than any artist in uncovering why this may be the case. They linger on it just enough to kindle fear. Picture Parlour has cracked the emotional connection necessary to elevate their music. Lush and well-mixed instrumentals provide a solid foundation for the key theme lingering on the latter tracks. Moon Tonic confirms it. There is a nostalgia for the streets we grew up on because they no longer sound or feel the same. Gentrification has shifted its focus to our hearts. Fighting back is not on the minds of many, but Picture Parlour has taken up arms with four exceptional tracks.  

These four tracks will convince those on the fence about the band. Enter with mixed feelings, and leave with Moon Tonic circling your nostalgia-laden mind. They do not see a love for the past as a negative, more a regression from the horrors of the world. Picture Parlour is sharp enough to do this and a few extra listens of Face in the Picture cements it. Curb your nostalgia and haul yourself into the real world. Picture Parlour is not hoping to light your heart on fire, to take the fight back to pizza joints with smiling slices, but to take note of what they do to the once history-laden streets. Face in the Picture is an exceptional effort – something which doubles down on the qualities of a band that needed a bit more time to kindle them. They have done so, and now the bonfire rages with some of the best indie lyrics you’ll get from this year.