I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many people waiting with bated breath for a debut album. Part of me wants to chalk this up to The Last Dinner Party putting on notoriously fantastical shows: made up of theatrics, nods to literature, and best friends simply having a good time on stage. The other part of me knows it’s because the songs we have access to 24/7 by the band are absolute genius.
The Last Dinner Party have finally arrived in full-length. 'Prelude to Ecstasy' is a debut for the ages. Brimming with everything aforementioned that leaves gig-goers awestruck with the charm and passion of musicians who have been building a portfolio towards this for over a year of live shows, a trickle of single releases, and festival appearances.
The album begins with an untitled prelude. It’s orchestral and beautiful, the music that they walk on stage to. It does what a prelude is made for: setting the scene of the show we are about to partake in, and showcasing the talent of each individual in the band. It could be played by an orchestra or used as one takes a seat in a theatre hall. It is, quite simply, an epic in itself.
Track two is Burn Alive a song all of us at HOWL have been begging for since we heard it live for the first time. I heard this song a year ago, and it’s been embedded at the front of my brain ever since.
‘You don’t wanna hurt me / but I want you to / I’d break off my rib to make another you’
This lyric. This encapsulates the motif of The Last Dinner Party entirely to me – religious imagery, a subtle masochism that underlies everything we do and experience as women – it places heartbreak in a whole new realm. I don’t know how to discuss this song without making it an essay on the symbolism of Joan of Arc and the romance of hurting for someone, addiction to making something of yourself at the cost of sacrifice … so I’ll leave it at saying it’s my favourite on the album. And yes, I did a literature degree.
The transition into Caesar on a TV Screen takes us reeling from the role of sacrificial lamb to he who sacrifices. From the fated to the ‘champion of [my] fate.’ It’s about not having any innocence, and using your power to feel loved and liked. The changes in tempo in this song make it register as two different songs in my head. And I love it. I feel like I’m traversing from the one mood of ‘I’ll follow you and hold your hand’ to ‘it will be me the world answers to.’
Living is about going through the motions but occasionally an outburst of emotion comes through: Caesar feels like the outlier of day-to-day life that makes you feel like you’re entering an inexplicable state of difference.
A song that parallels this, to me, is Beautiful Boy. A song about wanting to be a beautiful boy, presumably for the benefit of appearances and attraction but also for the right to everything in society that men so often get.
‘The power in my hips is useless in the dark / What good are red lips when you’re faced with something sharp?’
Chronologically on the album, Caeser is the first of the singles - the album contains all of their readily available songs, so I don’t want to mention loads about them as they’ve already had some brilliant reviews online that put into words better than I could about how The Last Dinner Party consistently get it spot on.
Of course, Nothing Matters is fantastic. It’s the penultimate track and has just as much brilliance as it has every time I hear it. As the standout for 2024 Brits rising star, I think it’s pretty clear how perfect it is. Anger and love go hand in hand, often, and this song clarifies that to all listeners.
Sinner was a single that I felt was somewhat pushed aside. It’s a perfect representation of going from childhood to adulthood through exposure to societal values and shame.
The Romantic poets were the first people to consider childhood as a set of experiences rather than just a span of life - given the romantic, renaissance associations in The Last Dinner Party’s outfits, lyrics and overall vibe, this cannot be coincidental.
Wordsworth’s book one of the Prelude (mind you, awfully similar to the title of this record…) is titled ‘Child-hood and school time’ and is all about the way innocence gradually vanishes as we grow.
Wishing to know someone, let alone another girl, in your youth, has an incredibly queer reading. Wanting to know someone and experience life with them before you were exposed to the shame and fear of being queer (ESPECIALLY on an album rife with religious symbolism) tugs at my heartstrings incredibly. How this single hasn’t got the utmost praise is beyond me.
The last of the singles on this album is My Lady of Mercy, a song that the band introduce as ‘being about going to a religious school.’ The clapping in this song instills something very new-wave to me, an expertly done juxtaposition of the new and the traditional. This juxtaposition is furthered by the ideals of religion and the risque, secretive nature of sexuality within religious communities. Dreamy.
'Feminine Urge'. The phrase we all (admittedly or not) love saying. I say it about 3 times a day.
But I have never managed to make my pledge of femininity sound like if an Ancient Greek retelling did what it set out to. That is, not a pseudo-feminist 101 but actually putting down men for treating women like shit - through art, nonetheless.
‘Do you feel like a man when I can’t talk back? Do you want me or do you want control? Failure to commit to the role, I admit, was a failure you achieved on your own.’
I wrote down this lyric after seeing their set at the Isle of Wight festival in 2023, with the addition of ‘MY FUCKING GOD’.
When ‘On Your Side’ came out on spotify I played it on loop and cried.
I met Georgia and Abigail at YNot Festival and asked them what their favourite books are. Both girls looked at me, at each other, and in perfect synchronicity said ‘Orlando by Virginia Woolf’ and then let out the kind of laughs that only happen when you and your best friend do something so similar because you spend all your time together.
Naturally, I was looking for connections to Virginia in this album. And when I first heard this song, it was so aggressively reminiscent of a letter from Vita Sackville-West to Virginia that I felt physically sick.
‘I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way.’
Letter from Vita, 21 January 1926 (Via Penguin.co.uk)
It’s that idea of sacrifice, again. Sacrificing your peace and wellbeing to support someone who you want who doesn’t want you, who hurts you time and time again. It’s absolutely gut-wrenching and all of it - vocals, instruments, lyrics, themes - break my heart and make me feel like I am both a problem and problematic.
Gjuha is a gorgeous, moving ode by keys player Aurora Nishevci. Translating to ‘language’ from Arabic, it’s all about a disconnect from one’s mother tongue. Aurora always introduces this one on stage, and I don’t want to say much as it isn’t my lived experience. I’m so glad it’s found a home on this album, though, as it is beautiful. Emily plays the mandolin on this track, which adds a new layer to the strings throughout the album.
Portrait is a track that you might recognise this one as its original name, Portrait of a Dead Girl. It’s an ode to being protected by someone who will ultimately hurt you so badly you wish they’d simply killed you, instead.
Of course, a literary album isn’t complete without some Gothicism. This song screams of the best quote in literature.
‘You said I killed you-haunt me, then! [...] Be with me always-take any form-drive me mad!’ Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights.
The choral singing of ‘give me the strength’ is jaw-dropping: it really feels like the band are one another’s ‘beasts on [a] chain’ protecting each other through artistry and passion.
The album is closed by the track Mirror. Here at HOWL, we adore Alexandra Savior. I think this song is something she’d love - it’s spooky and haunting, with swelling synths.
It’s all about fading away without the attention of someone else, wanting to be remembered. To that, all I have to say is this:
The Last Dinner Party will go down in history. They’re incredible, and this album is a work of art.
'PRELUDE TO ECSTASY'
TO BE RELEASED ON 2 FEBRUARY 2024
