It’s been a long time since a rock group had such a thunderous debut on stage. Formed just three years ago, The Last Dinner Party kicked off 2024 by rising to the top of the chart Sound of… from the BBC, which shines the spotlight on the most promising artists of the year according to critics and industry professionals.
In fact, the coronation of the British quintet was written in the sky since its clip was posted online last April Nothing Matters, which revealed a group in full control of its baroque rock music and its visual aesthetic evoking Sofia Coppola’s “suicide virgins”. The dizzying “falsetto” of lead singer Abigail Morris stood out from the start against a backdrop of organ and harp notes, before giving way to a memorable chorus, sung in unison, where the use of the verb that begins with f was to signal that its members were not there to serve tea.
“Prelude to ecstasy”? The following four extracts only confirmed the imminent realization of this prophecy. The Last Dinner Party imposed a strong signature while claiming its belonging to the history of rock: on Sinner, Abigail Morris expressed the regret of a lost innocence on a piano staccato interrupted by very sharp guitars typical of Britpop. The tempestuous Caesar on a TV Screenwhere the singer trumpeted her typically masculine desires for (stereo) conquest, could have been the emanation of Roxy Music, while My Lady of Mercy exploded into a heavy riff that Jimmy Page would not have denied.
When you’ve already worn out half of an album, the rest necessarily seems less revealing, but Prelude to Ecstasy turns out to be driven from start to finish by a burning ambition. Burn Me Alive cements the band’s post-punk identity, while The Feminine Urge gives the listener the impression of discovering a lost model of the Go-Go’s. The Ballad Beautiful Boy continues the deconstruction of gender stereotypes by provocatively asserting that “the best a boy can do is be pretty”.
The best part of all this is that The Last Dinner Party seems to be presenting itself on an even hotter day in concert – small parties where the audience is encouraged to respect a dress code (like Greek myths and legends, the “language of flowers”). ” Or Velvet Goldmine). To be validated on March 29, at the MTelus, where the concert was moved as soon as tickets went on sale to meet demand.
Extract of Sinner
Rock
Prelude to Ecstasy
The Last Dinner Party
Island