Out with the old

As the year creaks to an end I and I turn my thoughts to those pesky top ten lists, out of the blue come two prime pieces of new pop music to make me screw up those bits of paper and throw them in the bin.

Northern Portrait are back with another ep on Matinee in January, and the lead track from that, 'Happy Nice Day' fair blows the cobwebs away. It's the same sort of sublime pop we've come to expect from the Danes, but then what were you expecting? Dub step? 'Happy Nice Day' swoops and glides and ends on a suitably joyous, hopeful note. But, heck, why take my word for it? Listen to this over and over again for yourself.



And then there's Joanna Gruesome, who have pretty much taken 2012 and given it the roughest, most ramshackle power cuddle they can. They end with these tracks from their forthcoming Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records seven inch.


We've heard 'Lemonade Grrl' before, and it's still as thrilling as ever, so why not lose yourself in Do You Really Wanna Know Why Yr Still in Love With Me', which, underneath all that gorgeous fuzz and discordance, is just a really, really beautiful pop song.

Northern Portrait and Joanna Gruesome have a lot more in common than I first thought. Here's to seeing them both do more of the same next year.