Since the release of the unstoppable force of ‘Nothing Matters’, The Last Dinner Party have seen a stratospheric rise from a London post-punk phenomenon to a live spectacle capable of selling out academies, such as the renowned Roundhouse. Such success poses a challenge for the band, as they aim to translate the energy from their gigs into their 41-minute debut.
The quintet came up with their name in the infamous Shacklewell Arms, along with their ideal aesthetic for the quintet, which has led to an immersive experience for fans, often dressing up in renaissance pieces along with the band. While this relationship can’t be built with cloth via your preferred streaming service, Prelude To Ecstasy does an excellent job of ‘world building’. The title track possesses a huge arrangement of strings that wouldn’t sound out of place in a blockbuster, paired with a flute line that leans towards the playful side of the band’s attitude. This has been the walk-on tune for the group’s live outings and does an excellent job of ‘setting the stage’ for the record, providing a captivating start to their first album.
Personal and fan-favourite ‘Burn Alive’ mirrors the drama provided by the opening track, with a dark, intense guitar riff. However, the song opens up with the chorus, as synths play a larger part in the song compared to their gig. This change will be sure to keep superfans on their toes, but I think we will all be screaming for a live session come release this Friday. Not only do grandiose openers and closers ‘Burn Alive’ and ‘Mirror’ give a soundtrack-esque quality to the record, tricks like the segue from ‘Gjuha’ to ‘Sinner’ don’t let you out of the album’s trance – if it were a film, you wouldn’t be getting up to head to the bathroom.
Theatrics and a grand aesthetic may be focal points for the group, but that isn’t to make up for a lack of substance; religion appears to be a strong motif throughout the group, with their name even bringing up imagery of the last supper, intentional or otherwise. Songs such as ‘Sinner’ and ‘My Lady of Mercy’ see religious undertones throughout and use them to look inwards towards topics such as sexuality and expression. While the latter details a specific experience with Catholicism and sexuality, ‘Sinner’ makes use of religious connotations to find “joy in self-love and self-acceptance”, as guitarist Lizzie Mayland explained. And although a slightly presumptious reference to the last supper may be dated by a couple thousand years, references such as ‘Feminine Urge’ show an affinity for the present too.
Given it’s a project which sounds so self-assured at times, it may not be the typical ‘coming of age’ debut that so many bands strive for. That being said, the record still has moments of vulnerability for listeners to relate to. The aforementioned ‘Gjuha’ (which directly translates to ‘tongue’ in Albanian) is a prime example, with keyboardist Aurora Mischevi has said, “it’s about feeling ashamed of not knowing her mother tongue very well”.
Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing The Last Dinner Party over the last few years won’t be surprised by the quality of the songs on this project; pairing their live hits with the prolific James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Florence and the Machine) makes for a listen as entrancing as the band’s live show. However, the debut’s success offers a much more interesting question of where the band will take their future endeavours in an attempt to equal such a strong first outing.
Words by Hugo Harris