From The Smiths to Copenhagen's Smiths. Danish band The Northern Portrait return with their second album and it's a proper throwback to the decade that formed me. Most obviously in terms of the reminders it throws up of The Smiths, above all, both in terms of singer Michael Larsen's melancholic lyrical twists and turns but also guitarist Rune Reolt's Marr flourishes.
The Smith's are not always the best influence if fandom becomes mimicry. Northern Portrait avoid indictment because their songs are so consistently good. Although it may not be a record I go back to, hey I've got Meat is Murder and The Queen is Dead on my shelves, this is all rather lovely.
The band's press release is slightly disingenous, listing a whole series of other reference points. Pulp, Suede, The Stone Roses. No, not really. This is pure and simply a record that could not have come into place without Morrissey, Marr, Rourke and Joyce. You might as well come out and say it. Still as far as tributes come this is a pretty sparkling one.
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