An audible Banquet of Beauty, brutality and baroque rock.

Arguably the most talked about band of the last year, The last dinner party are the new reigning monarchs of the rock and roll scene. Corset adorned and sword in hand they are conquering our stages by storm, cordially invited us to basque in their baroque rock ballads and bangers and we do so with valiant might as we all become a united force in the throes of something new, something needed.

Leading up the the release of their debut album TLDP has quickly become a household name in the rock and roll scene, their quick wit, creative intellect seeing them surge to the top of the charts and the forefront of any avid music fans mind.After almost a years wait from the release of debut single ‘Nothing Matters’ ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ is here and we just had to take you on a literary tour of it.

Prelude To Ecstasy

A cinematic opening to tapestry of opulent vocals, folk tales and femininity. The blisteringly biblical, sensual spirit that embodies this band is ferocious and vibrant in this track, a soundscape the settles you in for what’s to come.

Burn Alive

Operatic and orchestral this song is like standing in candlelight wearing a wet, period dress. You’ve just ran into the Manor House from the raining woods, to find your lover in bed with another. It is a sensual Bond- esque title track, a karma sutra meets Jane Austen, it boasts a renaissance painting beauty imagine Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding Her Thigh 1664.

Lead Singer Abigail is ferocious and uplifting in her delivery, her voice both heavy with rage and passion, a desperation fuelled through desire. To listen to this song is to have a spiritual awakening, it feels as though the song itself is burning, as though we are all in the woods, dancing around a fire, burning images of past selves and previous lovers, memorised by the flames.

Caesar on a TV Screen

Controversial perhaps but this one didn’t really hit in the way ‘Sinner’ or ‘My Lady of Mercy’ does. Still a vibrant display of double standards and impossible comparisons, the greatness one could have achieved if they were perceived differently, if they were different.If Caesar was a woman would we still speak his name?

It isn’t one of my skips, I actually don’t have any of those, but I do feel like I am sitting waiting to belt the chorus and then to move on. The video for this is what sells it for me, the theatrical delivery, the vibrant colours, the opulence, the acting done so brilliantly. The stand out lines in this track have got to be;

“When I was a child I never felt like a child I felt like an emperor with a city to burn”

To be venerated, to be applauded just for being a white man, and yes times have changed, and yes men’s mental health is a very important issue that needs to be understood but society is still rife with sexism, still rife with double standards, especially in the music industry. TLDP labelled as industry plants just for their success, why can a woman never just be good because she is? Why must she always prove her worth, why must she always be compared to a male? Never good enough in her own rite, so in a way this song is a satirical take back on these comments, and although it is not my favourite it is done well.

The feminine Urge

Baroque rock. Softness and strength, once seen to be unsettling power in the bones of a woman, this song redefines the boundaries of womanhood, infused with all the love and rage that makes a woman so beautiful. Visceral, a vessel for your entertainment, all eyes are on me but I exist just for you, a man must feel so powerful in the face of the helpless, trying to love but achieving control.

You wish to care for your mother in the way she once cared for you, you wish a man would do the same but its like being in love with a beast who just wants to eat. A visceral depiction of love, loving and despair, Abigail’s voice Lizzie Maryland on guitar,Emily Roberts on lead guitar and Georgia Davies on bass take us back in time to watch women in renaissance come alive and see how our lives still share so many parallels.

On Your Side

This song epitomises beauty, it is so gorgeous to listen to, so soft and tender but still following that pattern of powerful passion in its delivery, especially with Aurora Nishevci on Keys this piano ballad meets rock baroque makes it that more delicious. Semantics of shame, anxiety, desire and despair never felt so wonderful.

We all have stories we can not share, nights we wish had not happened but want to go back too, the horror and hope that it happened but could happen again. At it’s core, for me, it is about being with someone you shouldn’t be with in their time of need, in their time of ruin. And because you are there for them you convince yourself they could be there for you too, they could love you in the way you love them the cognitive dissonance of convincing yourself of this while knowing it not to be true.

Beautiful boy

Oh to be loved a way a man is loved. man merely breathes and he is admired, venerated for his accomplishments whilst a woman must bleed, must break her bones in order to earn love. Eyes devour her always but they never really see.

Emily’s flute offers an ethereal edge to this track, a white linen shirt and golden light, halo beauty surrounds this boy (Think Jacob Elordi in Saltburn), but why? Who has put this light on him? and how does a woman get that?

Gjuha 

An introspective track predominantly sung by Aurora , offering insight into her culture and background. The disconnect and difficulty she feels while living in England, as someone with a Greek and Albanian background, having spent most of her time living in England she struggles with the loss of her cultural identity, relying on dictionaries to remind herself of her language, acknowledging her difficulty to communicate clearly through floating falsettos that boast a dream like quality.

Sentimentality of unfulfilled corridors of opportunity and the passing of time this song boasts a distinctive heartfelt humanity with Morris joining on vocals, her voice a hand reaching out reminding Nishevci that she’s home with her, with the band.

Sinner

Such a feel good showstopper of a song, embedded in the album the way it ties into the song falling before it is so gorgeous it is such a moorish song that will have you dancing by the second word.This is the part in the dinner party where you have had a few glasses of red wine and there is still time before dessert so you dance, cheery on too much champagne the table becomes your stage. Can’t say too much about this song because I am too busy singing along so check out what I wrote about it after seeing it live in June last year here.

My Lady of Mercy 

A thunderstorm at your feet this song is full of lightening, dark clouds and open heavens. Full of charm, playful wit and orchestral delivery, like power cursing through my veins, like hope and salt from two sweating bodies, like daggers and jewels this song is a masterpiece, play it in the museums. It is poetry, it is rock, it is the future of music, adorned in a renaissance corset and chainmail. An epiphany in the ears, this song is the sound of stuff happening, it is the pursuit of possibility coming into fruition boldly and beautifully.

Portrait of a Dead Girl 

Again another ethereal track evocative of the painting Beauty and the Beast by Adolphe Weisz, in which a woman lies next to a lion. There is a mutualistic relationship between both, to protect and to feed to guard and to groom, but this is a relationship fuelled by fear not love, the fear that the one protecting on you could turn at any time and devour you whole leaving nothing but rotting rose petals behind.

But to be devoured by the one that you love, the one that swore to protect your perhaps that is the very emanating of it all, to love is so sacrifice, to protect is to sacrifice, when your loved one is starving you would give them your heart to eat if it kept them alive.This song is also about having the strength to be your own protector to slay the beast that demands of you to starve in order for it to stand, is it protecting you or preventing your from leaving, are you held by a golden frame or a fist?

Nothing Matters 

The beauty of this album is we all know this banger is coming but the power of the other songs do not make us feel as though we are waiting for it.

This is the main course of the meal, we are not starving for it but we are so overjoyed its here we can’t help but sing for our supper. It is a clear, florid floor-filler that will have you yelling the chorus fluently before you’ve heard Morris howl it twice. The monotony of the day, the dread of tomorrow, all drains away.

This song enchants, you may be listening to it alone but you feel the choral spirit of all the others belting it out as you do, the woman inner car on the way to work, the boy in his bedroom singing into his mothers hairbrush, the dad listening to his daughters records and reliving his youth, we are a collective, we are all united as we shout the chorus, our heart running through feels of wild flowers, our businesswear, our stained sweatpants all as light and iterated as period drama dresses, the song serving as a propulsive reminder that perhaps nothing really does matter, other than in this moment, the moment in which we are all together, all dancing to our new favourite song.

Mirror

The only way to be successful is to suffer. A star is only on our radar when it is dying before then it is just part of the vast night sky. We are haunted by images of who we ave been, holding us back from who we could be, standing in the way of who we are now, each version of ourselves stand at the end of our bed and scream with their lost potential, we are all mosaics of who’s, has been and maybes, it is about finding peace with the person we are that matters most. An ode to the untapped talent, the band themselves hold up a mirror to those who are trying, you could be like us, but also to the fact that despite being talented you ill only be known if your talent is perceived by another, their perception must become your personality if you want to prosper. It also evokes the ‘Lady of Shallot’ a Victorian ballet based on a poem by Tennyson about a woman cursed to only perceive the world through the reflection in a mirror, an audible reminder that what we see is rarely reality.

This album ends how it begun, with an orchestral ode to womanhood, to stardom and to spiritual energy that will have to pressing replay.

The band are simply authentically them, talented, intelligent, creative beings and it is unfortunate that their existence as al Ann female/non-binary band makes a statement as it is still seen to be going against the norm especially with their success. Of course they deserve the praise, the recognition, but let’s not put them on a pedestal for simply being who they are, let’s allow for these figureheads to become the norm.

Please go and see them live! Tickets available soon.