When The Last Dinner Party were launched into the public eye with debut single ‘Nothing Matters’ in the spring of 2023, it was as a band that already possessed the whole package: a sound, aesthetic, confidence and ambition so cohesive that the internet –predictably – began crying ‘plant’. In reality, they’d just done the prep. Debut album ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ was already in the bag, meaning they could stride forward with all their musical ducks in a row, reaping the increasing hype and spoils of a job well done. The record went straight to Number One, landing them the biggest first-week sales of a debut in nearly a decade, and the London quintet became one of only a handful of British guitar exports in recent years to make the jump into a properly mainstream entity.
Which is to say that, heading into follow-up ‘From The Pyre’, TLDP find themselves in the fairly unusual position (for an alternative band, at least) of having never really had to grow or evolve with any eyes on them before. Where artists such as Wolf Alice or CMAT built up momentum over time, their earliest EPs showing the workings out of what would eventually make their name, The Last Dinner Party’s first single was a hit. What then, when you have to go away and figure out your next moves with the world’s eyes waiting?
Arriving just 18 months after their debut, with the band having toured consistently throughout, first off, it’s a wonder that ‘From The Pyre’ exists at all. But most impressive is the continued intricacy and exploratory nature that shines throughout: a hallmark of their debut that seemed ripe to fall by the wayside given the timeframe. The Last Dinner Party’s second isn’t a quickly dashed-off album to keep the momentum going (or at least, they’ve made a solid job of covering it up). Instead, ‘From The Pyre’ spotlights the five members’ considerable technical proficiency, remaining in a similarly theatrical world but impressively resisting falling into a formula.
Vocalist Abigail Morris has clearly been through the emotional ringer. Where lead single ‘This Is The Killer Speaking’ swashbuckled into view, slapping its thigh with a pomp that Adam Ant would give up his tricorne for and dealing out fabulously sassy lyrical middle fingers (“Hope my television appearance drives you fucking mad”), ‘Second Best’ begins with a multipart choral harmony like a eulogy for a lost relationship, her dextrous vocals dancing around a track that’s both mournful and bitter. ‘Count The Ways’, meanwhile, finds Georgia Davis delivering a snarling bassline before the band crash into a richly melodic chorus that wholly belies its equally vengeful heartache (“I can see rings / That should be for me”).
Musically, ‘From The Pyre’ takes admirable risks. The witchy, incantational vocal parts that spike through ‘Rifle’ are isolated and left to open following track ‘Woman Is A Tree’, their harshness even more obvious without any cushioning. ‘Rifle’, too, includes a verse sung in French; combined with melodic nods to Neneh Cherry’s ‘Seven Seconds’, it’s an unlikely mix but one the quintet make work.
As the old saying goes, you can’t make a first impression twice. And when your first impression is as striking as The Last Dinner Party’s, it’s an almost impossible task to follow it up with something that creates the same kind of stir. ‘From The Pyre’, however, deserves to be judged on its own merit – as an accomplished album with more than enough ideas up its flaming sleeve, but also as further proof of a band with the self-belief, imagination and ability to survive the pressure that should keep them going for a while yet.
