REVIEW: THE LAST DINNER PARTY

Listening to “From The Pyre”, the new work by the London quintet The Last Dinner Party, is equivalent to taking a seat in the audience of a Victorian theater and watching an erudite, layered and disturbingly seductive pop piece.

Each song is a small act, a piece of a sound mosaic that could have been written by Fleetwood Mac or Queen, sung by Kate Bush or Florence and yet bears the indelible mark of a band that dares, thinks and surprises.

There's no rush on this record, no conventions to chase: “From The Pyre” moves with dizzying grace through intricate songs, layering biblical imagery, baroque details and a cacophonous indie energy reminiscent of the creative fever of the 2000s.

The choirs, the use of French (Rifle), the majestic strings, the piano solutions compete on equal terms with walls of sound, furious drums and nervous guitar playing. It's an overflow of imagination, character and drama: a joy to lose yourself in without fear.

This album is a collection of stories linked together by the concept of album as myth. The Pyre is an allegorical place from which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction, but also of regeneration, passion and light. The songs are character-centric, but remain deeply personal: everyday events taken to pathological extremes. Being ghosted becomes a western dance with a killer, and the broken heart laughs in the face of the apocalypse. The lyrics evoke guns, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc and burning infernos. We found these types of evocative images to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss our experiences, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”

This theatrical romanticism takes shape in orchestral sounds, but slides naturally into a melancholic and modern gothic rock, in which dreams, nightmares, sex and death intertwine as in a Shakespearean tragedy rewritten for contemporary pop. Each song is a vortex, each note a spark that illuminates the darkness, an invitation to let yourself be carried away by the tension between ecstasy and ruin.

“From The Pyre” is an album full of ideas, ideas, clever devices and authentic emotions: a sonic journey that is not limited to being listened to, but demands the total participation of the listener.

The Last Dinner Party deliver a work that challenges predictability and leaves the echo of a fierce, magnificent, ardent and luminous creativity, capable of transforming myth into music.