LAST DINNER PARTY - From The Pyre

My relationship with Last Dinner Party has been fairly conflicted over the past couple of years. I went through a phase of unconditional love, back when they'd released just a couple of singles and footage of their early London shows was already racking up views on YouTube, to a lukewarm response to those songs once they were set in stone on "Prelude To Ecstasy" (I preferred the live versions). Then I started warming to the debut album, but when I actually got the chance to see them on a stage, I didn't feel what I was expecting to feel. The fact remains that "From The Pyre", their sophomore effort, is one of the most anticipated records of this final quarter of 2025, riding the wave of the many accolades they've picked up, starting with two consecutive Brit Awards — Rising Star in 2024 and Best New Artist in 2025 — plus a nomination for the Mercury Prize.

If you were a huge fan of "Prelude To Ecstasy", well, be warned: "From The Pyre" traces a rather different arc. The baroque-pop that marked Last Dinner Party's early songs becomes more elaborate, more structured (a clear example being the constant shifts in pace running through "This Is The Killer Speaking"), even less "easy", evolving towards a form of orchestral glam that alternates dramatic passages with vigorous indie-rock flourishes. Strings and pianos coexist with guitar solos and choruses that make no secret of a certain reverence for "Bohemian Rhapsody": listen out for the prologue of "Second Best", but also the vocal interplay in the first part of "Woman Is A Tree". Within this process of compositional growth, a practically perfect track like "Rifle" shows a firm resolve not to resort to cheap shortcuts in the pursuit of wider success.

The Seventies loom large in the English quintet's songwriting — just follow the twists of "Count The Ways" — but the stylistic references are numerous, and after an opening stretch geared towards a personal, contemporary rereading of Queen and T-Rex, towards the end the album tends to adopt a more subdued, more reflective, more "dark" gait, especially on "Sail Away" (where the piano takes centre stage), followed by "The Scythe", in which Abigail Morris meditates on the concept of mortality, singing about the loss of her father. The melodramatic mood lightens up in the closing "Inferno", with its more indie approach.

For now I still prefer the spontaneity and urgency of "Prelude To Ecstasy", but damn if "From The Pyre" isn't a show of strength from a band that proudly flaunts a cohesion and solidity few would have expected at such a high level.

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19/10/2025