Hype is a dangerous thing. If you’re a hotly tipped band that’s come out of nowhere, suspicions are likely to be aroused. And so, to a headline from the NME, who are not impervious to a bit of shenanigans with their hype machine.
Introducing Picture Parlour, the fearless rockers ready to take on the world
The NME adds: “Just six months after their first live gig, the Manchester-formed group have become a word-of-mouth sensation. Now, their debut single ‘Norwegian Wood’ will see the band take flight.”
So, this is hype we’re dealing with. Do they look the part? Well, apart from some assumed nerves in the below photo, their clothes are nice. Clothes matter, and stop pretending they don’t. Nice ’70s orange jacket. Very nice. Western shirt. Rollneck. Beret. So far, so good.
What do they sound like? That’s actually the most important thing. Obviously, taste is personal, so there’ll be no saying ‘BOO IT SUCKS‘ here. They’re a young band. Good luck to them.
You came here for an opinion though, so let’s do that. After all, the Critics Vs Bands is a sport, and everyone knows the craic.
We’re not bowled over here, but it does sound like the kind of thing that depressed Tumblr kids like though, and make no mistake – get that vibe right and you’ll have fans for life. We’re not saying it’s bad – we’re saying we’re going to wait for more releases. It’s fine.
The group are signed to the same management as Wet Leg who have been a runaway success, so there’s definitely some sensible reasoning as to why there’s anticipation. And for fear of dreadful Here Come The Girls!!!1! posturing from some boring music writer, it is always welcome to hear women’s voices in music, which all too frequently defaults to men’s.
So why the suspicion? Well, this may be a slight on mainstream music journalism rather than the band themselves. They’ve accidentally become a Main Character on social media thanks to this cover. Nice promo if you can get it, any which way you look at it. People are accusing them of all manner of things, while others are staunchly defending them.
It seems the raised eyebrows come from the group not exactly swimming in a huge amount of social media followers. 7k on Insta (invariably soon to rocket, and that’s way more than most other small bands in fairness) and little viral chat to date. However, it’s not impossible that a band can just strike the right note and take off like a rocket. That said, such proclamations from music magazines are making people wonder what the deal is. A virtually unknown band who already have an NME cover, support slots with the Manics and Bruce Springsteen under their belt and this week, was their first release? If we’re being neutral, that’s unusual.
Part of us thinks we should absolutely be thrilled that big publications are taking a punt on new bands, after all, that’s exactly what they should be doing. Massive bands on covers are fine and all that, but it’s too easy to stick to the tried-and-tested. If this is something that NME and other publications are going to commit to, then we’re all for it. Remember the NME jizzing about The Strokes? Most NME fans won’t be mad at those guys being introduced to their lives.
That said, The Strokes. Wealthy parents. Hype. It’s a suspicion that won’t ever go away. The cess-pool over at Twitter is getting rowdy because people want to know who this band are, where they came from, because it seems, no-one really know who they are. Are we going to get a satisfying Wikipedia page filled with Blue Links? It shouldn’t scratch an itch, but it sure does. Schadenfreude.
One user (see the thread here) is particularly miffed.
An amusing reply in the thread is “some real Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong energy”. Whether warranted, it’s funny and will either ring true and be doubly hilarious, or won’t and be hilarious for dredging up that bloody band in the first place.
Either way, we’re reluctant to buy into what could ostensibly be the usual casual sexism levelled at any female fronted band – we all know that they get a level of scrutiny that the lads just don’t.
There’s a number of popular bands that seem to get unfair criticism because of who people assume who their audience is. For example, My Chemical Romance get it in the neck, and is it because they’re bad or is it because loads of girls like them? You know the answer to that.
Discourse around new bands and magazine covers is always tricky, especially when they’re being talked up BIG. The main thing we need to really concern ourselves about is whether the songs are any good or not, right? Kinda. It’s important that the arts aren’t steamrollered by the wealthy gap-year types, but we can’t vet all new bands to see if they pass a fit-and-pauper means testing first. That’d be ridiculous.
At the time of writing, there’s zero evidence that this lot are Nepo Babies or Adjacent, but that won’t matter if the music slaps or resonates with some people. Apparently, the band met at university, so they’re not poor by default. But let’s not get carried away with any notions. We’ll keep an eye on these and hope for some bangers in the future. If not, we had a good time talking about it.
Now, hit us up with the place you’re getting your clothes from! That blazer is dynamite!
The Pop Corporation 
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