Top Tracks: Picture Parlour – Face in the Picture

At first I didn’t get the hype behind Picture Parlour, but all that changed upon seeing these rising stars live. Seeing their style, energy and stage presence in the flesh, it suddenly made all the sense in the world why they were generating such buzz on the live circuit. Somehow that intensity didn’t quite get captured on their first couple of singles. ‘Face in the Picture’ is the first time that a studio recording has been able to show the quartet at the height of their powers. This title track from their debut EP, out 14th June, effortlessly outdoes the Arctic Monkeys at their own game. Katherine Parlour’s unique croon is bursting with soul, Ella Risi’s earth shaking guitar dances around cinematic orchestration; the whole damn affair feels like an event. All about how the echoes of the past, and the wounds once thought healed, continue to haunt us, ‘Face in the Picture’ feels like a ready-made Bond theme. The ideal track for a suave secret agent struggling to outrun their past, or for making the rest of us feel like we can take on the whole world.