Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy

  by Zena Grieg

published: 8 / 3 / 2024

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Review

Acclaimed Brit Rising Star Award-winning new UK Indie-Rock quintet The Last Dinner Party have brought out their debut album, ‘Prelude To Ecstasy”. Formed in 2021, when they met as students, the group. lead singer Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland (guitar and vocals), Emily Roberts (lead guitar, mandolin and flute), Georgia Davies (bass) and Aurora Nishevci (keyboard and vocals), are renowned for their distinctive, opulent attire, reminiscent of Renaissance costume dramas and have since set their own fashion trend, sparking Gothic revivals In Islington and Primrose Hill. The record, produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine, Jessie Ware, Kylie Minogue), is a diverse, exuberant musical kaleidoscope. Highlights of this twelve-track collection include: the opening instrumental title track with its crashing cymbals and sumptuous, cinematic orchestration; the Joan of Arc inspired, gripping anthem ‘Burn Alive’ with its striking lyrics: “There is candle wax melting in my veins/So I keep myself standing in your flames/…I am at the stake/Petrol my perfume”; ‘Caesar On A TV Screen’ with its hilarious, send up video and harp, strings and timpani accompaniment; the drumbeat-propelled, baroque ballad ‘Feminine Urge’; enigmatic, flute-led ‘Beautiful Boy’ on the snares of gender stereotyping; folk track ‘Gjuha’, performed in Albanian by keyboardist Aurora Nishevci, exploring the theme of language and disconnection; catchy glam rock/ post-punk ‘Sinner’ with its scathing tirade against homophobic small-mindedness: “There’s nothing for me/Here, where the world is small”; ‘My Lady Of Mercy’ with its sensuous gothic iconography and provocative religious imagery: “Picture me in bed/Under your crucifix/…My lady of mercy/Strike me, pierce me straight through the heart”; passionate love song, their first single ‘Nothing Matters’, with its striking guitar solo by Emily Roberts; and the closer, ‘Mirror’ with its hypnotic bass, stark lines – “I’m just a mirror/I don’t exist without your gaze/I fade away, I fade away” – and cathartic instrumental outro. Fantastical, theatrical, reverberating with raw, operatic vocals and abounding with cinematic and literary allusions, ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ strikes a pose with aplomb.

Track Listing:-

1 Prelude To Ecstasy
2 Burn Alive
3 Caesar on a TV Screen
4 The Feminine Urge
5 On Your Side
6 Beautiful Boy
7 Gjuha
8 Sinner
9 My Lady of Mercy
10 Portrait of a Dead Girl
11 Nothing Matters
12 Mirror

Band Links:-

https://www.thelastdinnerparty.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/TheLastDinner
https://twitter.com/lastdinnerparty

Label Links:-

http://www.islandrecords.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/islandrecordsuk/
https://www.youtube.com/user/islandrec
https://www.facebook.com/IslandRecords
https://instagram.com/islandrecordsuk/

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