The Last Dinner Party launches a beautiful invitation to musical ecstasy

2024-02-06 15:00:09
From left to right: Emily Roberts, Lizzie Mayland, Abigail Morris, Aurora Nishevci and Georgia Davies of The Last Dinner Party, in Los Angeles (United States), November 2023. CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP

Two years after the sensation Wet Leg, revealed by a mischievous single, Lounge chairbefore a first album (Wet Leg, 2022), confirming critical and commercial success, a new female (and non-binary) group is stirring up the buzz drivers dear to the British scene. London quintet recently named by the BBC “Sound of 2024” (an annual survey of music professionals) as the “most promising new talent” of the year to come, The Last Dinner Party used the springboard of an addictive first title, Nothing Mattersthen wild concerts, to amplify an excitement that should not be extinguished by the flamboyant mood of his first album, Prelude to Ecstasyreleased on February 2.

If Wet Leg favored a joyful minimalism bristling with pop-punk, the group, made up of Abigail Morris (vocals), Lizzie Mayland (vocals, guitar), Emily Roberts (guitar), Georgia Davis (bass) and Aurora Nishevci (keyboards, singing), allows himself an abundance of great spectacle, as if this “last festive dinner” and these “preliminaries to ecstasy” justified the most hedonistic impulses.

Tasty results

This can be seen in the choice of their attire – ball gowns, Victorian corsets, colorful toiletries and makeup, etc. –, in a song playing octaves, a baroque mix of influences and orchestrations sparkling to the rhythm of emotional outbursts. Without these young women forgetting to have fun.

After an almost symphonic instrumental introduction, plunging into a romanticism worthy of the Brontë sisters, the rolls and keyboards of Burn Alive parade, as if led by a Gothic priestess paying homage to the sacrificial courage of Joan of Arc. We find the new wave influence of Siouxsie Sioux there. A taste for theatricality that Abigail Morris borrows from other great veterans like Kate Bush, David Bowie or Freddie Mercury. Or more contemporary references, such as Florence and the Machine or Anna Calvi.

Produced with luxury by James Ellis Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Depeche Mode, Haim…), the album focuses on the spectacular without erasing the spontaneity of still inexperienced musicians. This mixture of hyper-polished arrangements and more abrasive guitars and rhythms, lyrical flights and festive ardor often gives tasty results, with instant impact. Like Nothing Mattersirresistibly danceable Sinner or a Feminine Urgepraising female rage.

The harmonic effectiveness of the choruses regularly evokes that of ABBA. A version of the Swedish group which would let itself be carried away by the binge drinking and unbridled sexuality. This great show between cabaret, glam rock, unabashed variety, post-punk and romanticism – which can be seen on February 20 at La Maroquinerie, in Paris – sometimes gives the impression of being bloated to the point of overdose (the melodramatic Mirrorthe grandiloquence of My Lady of Mercy). But this opulence can also reveal, upon re-listening, the relevance of melodies with drawers (Caesar on a TV Screen crossing tangy pop à la Blondie and operatic architecture à la Queen) and the virtues of an uninhibited panache.

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