"In an era when new bands struggle to break into the mainstream, the Last Dinner Party's unusually swift rise (they were supporting the Rolling Stones a mere eight months after their first gig, and won the Rising Star Brit award just two years later) meant they spent much of the press cycle for their Mercury-nominated, chart-topping 2024 debut rubbishing suggestions they'd been manufactured by the music industry."
"As its follow-up arrives, the London five-piece still seem defensive. While it may seem to an outsider that we have moved quickly on to a second album, they write in a self-penned press release, this timing felt like a natural progression to us. The artwork for From the Pyre From the Pyre certainly doesn't sound opportunistically rushed out. Quite the opposite, in fact: this is a dizzyingly dense collection of long, intricate tracks that layer biblical imagery, baroque detailing and cacophonous 00s indie energy."
The Last Dinner Party rose unusually fast, prompting repeated denials that they were industry-manufactured. The band insisted the timing of a second album felt like a natural progression despite perceptions of haste. The new record, From the Pyre From the Pyre, presents densely layered, lengthy tracks combining biblical imagery, baroque ornamentation and cacophonous 00s indie energy. The music ranges from Kate Bush–inflected moments to tortured metaphors, but the excess of sonic and lyrical extravagance often undermines basic melodic pleasure. When the group reins in maximalism, as on the brooding, anthemic I Hold Your Anger, the songs truly sing.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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