Anticipation spirals as the theatrical quintet lay the fruits of their labour at our feet.
OVERVIEW
From meeting in their freshers week to their first strings of shows in London, to the seeds lain from their debut single in early 2023, to earning a slot supporting The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, then earning the coveted BRITS Rising Star in the UK to their first late-night TV appearance across the pond comes to the present. Today. The day where elation quietens, we sit down get to finally listen to one of the most highly-anticipated debut albums for many a year from one of the most hyped bands within the alternative scene.
Bridging the gap between the excess of operatic art-rock and musical theatre, The Last Dinner Party – made up of Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, and Aurora Nishevci – are a deviously monstrous 5-piece who are the perfect backdrop for tearing up pillows to. Compared to unconditionally talented female artists like Kate Bush, Sparks, Florence Welch (who happened to award them with Rising Star Award) and Queen, the group devote themselves on ecstatically powerful thematic pieces, driven by staggering vocals led by frontwoman Abigail Morris.
Steering the music-convoy, the band released five pre-singles before today. Now, we see the full 12-track package, exactly as the group originally intended.
<< Don your best Bridgeton dress because you are cordially invited. >>
SONG-TO-SONG
From the minute-markers of poignant strings to the eccentric operatic swerves and verses, you can get an idea how much these five have poured into this record. The orchestral interlude of Prelude to Ecstasy – undoubtedly a motif carried from Nothing Matters – is the perfect embrace to the otherworldly soundtrack they have created here. What follows is Burn Alive, a tense marking with a ’80s synth-inspired flowing throughout, “there is candle-wax melting in my veins, so i keep myself standing in your flames. Burn, burn me alive..”
Caesar on a TV Screen curtails in a rather funky prelude before diving into a bar-of-six time portraying the ill-fitted power of a man throughout history, shining a rather hot magnifying glass towards Caesar – a man of his own demise, “And just for a second, I can be one of the greats / I’ll be Caesar on a TV screen.”
Both The Feminine Urge and On Your Side offer enchanting melodies, comprising of undulating vocals and piano cliff-hangers, all equally rich in design as the one before it.
When you’re talking about brilliance in grace, you needn’t look no further than the sixth track on the record. Beautiful Boy is a gorgeous piece of work; meandering on the borders of a ballad and a stoic classic that can be easily mistaken on the The Dreaming back cover. The Eastern-European segway of Gjuha is very much a “corrrrr” moment when the first piano notes are struck in follow-up Sinner.
A glittering harmonisation of pitter-patter and swathing jangles, Sinner is laced with a funky backdrop, as it divides up a story all about self-acceptance – “I wish I knew you before it was a sin.” We’re met with My Lady of Mercy, a darker, more rocky temptation combating the non-existent harmony that occurs with romance and religion – two themes we see strewn all over this canvas on the mantelpiece.
Quirky alternatives and avid Regency-lovers will be donning their best flowing dresses and lapping up the greats of Prelude of Ecstasy, the debut record of The Last Dinner Party. An album very much lathered in originality and style.
Portrait of a Dead Girl brings the story to a more disastrous curtain call, a melancholic song reflecting the unworthy outpouring of love to someone who is equally undeserving of it. The lyrics are poetic in nature and are more than just a strongly worded email – “When you laid like a wolf / With your head on my lap / I felt like one of those portraits / Of women protected by a beast on a chain,” while the choral outro is operatically Queen-esque. We then see the majesty of Nothing Matters – the seed that really started it all. But now, in the context of the album, is the really the sheer nonchalant expression to sexual encounters and… love..“And you can hold me like he held her / And I will fuck you like nothing matters.”
The record finally rounds off with Mirror – a strong outro that can be seen on a new Arctic Monkeys record, but expectedly the weakest one on the album, as the full outfit fades away to a melancholic ensemble.
The group have received scathing remarks from both music gammons and uppity music lovers about their apparent rise to stardom, and the buzz words of the industry appear when it comes to anything remotely surrounding female success – “industry plant”. But if anything, it’s simply made them far greater and stronger than ever before.
An ensemble fully embracing with the cards they’re dealt, The Last Dinner Party are in for one hell of a year…
Tickets for their EU/UK Tour go on sale Next Friday (9th Feb) >> https://www.thelastdinnerparty.co.uk/.
manvmusic.com 
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