ALBUM REVIEW: The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy

Island Records

Released: 02.02.24

The Last Dinner Party’s debut album has been a long time coming, since meeting in 2020 writing and recording together, due to the pandemic, has proved tricky. However, the nuggets of baroque pop they dropped steadily during 2023 have definitely whetted the appetite.

Now, as recent winners of BBC’s Sound of 2024, the release of Prelude To Ecstasy is poised to propel the group’s Cottagecore aesthetic via Jayne Eyre gothic melodrama to even greater heights. Live favourites like Nothing Matters, Sinner and Feminine Urge sit alongside more reflective songs like Portrait and On Your Side. They exude effortless charisma, and while rightly drawing some musical comparisons to Warpaint, Siouxsie Sioux, Sparks or Kate Bush they have a very singular sound with an epic, ambitious theatrical scope all of their own.