With their Mercury Prize-nominated, chart-topping debut album ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’, The Last Dinner Party set a high standard for their second album. They’ve succeeded in matching, or even exceeding it.‘From The Pyre’ offers a mature, natural progression from the band’s debut. Their unique, baroque-pop sound is even more developed, thoughtful and sophisticated. Each track intertwines with storylines and motifs that ebb and flow through striking lyricism and exquisite harmonies.
This is the return of a band who are self-assured and accomplished, who know exactly what they are doing, and this is clear from their opening track, ‘Agnus Dei’, which refers to the Catholic Lamb of God.
The song is playful and seductive, exploring the complex relationship between religion and sexual desire in a similar way to previous track, ‘Sinner’. The track’s underlying eroticism and use of double entendre is also closely related to stardom - “your name in lights forever” is “so much better than a ring on my finger” – as the lovers put each other on a pedestal and revel in fame. Like their previous album, theatricality, idolism, and performance pervade ‘From The Pyre’ – most evidently in the playful single, ‘This is the Killer Speaking’, which paints a picture of a vengeful woman brandishing her sword jubilantly.
The following tracks, ‘Count The Ways’ and ‘Second Best’ tell a story of lost love. The former appears to explore a forbidden or unrequited love, opening with an invitation to “let the snake bite”, but it soon becomes clear that the narrator’s love has moved on, with the singer lamenting that the “strings” and “rings”, “should be for me”. With a distinct, accented rhythm, the track exposes how time passes more meaningfully when it is defined by its relation to an important person or event, and how each day is another gut-punch.
Where ‘Count The Ways’ feels romantic and yearnful, ‘Second Best’ channels a much feistier, carefree energy, which is fuelled by a frustration of wanting something back even if it is wrong. This chorus is fast-paced and angsty, with a tone of bitterness and sarcasm linked to reluctantly accepting being ‘Second Best’.
‘The Scythe’ explores another side to loss which is both heartbreaking and beautiful. Opening with delicate organ chords, it’s reminiscent of Church music, beginning in a place of mourning, but building into an incantation of hope and togetherness with a resounding “don’t cry, we’re bound together”.
Abigail Morris describes the song as “how a relationship ending feels exactly the same as the person dying” and that “The Scythe comes for everyone and you shouldn’t be afraid of what’s on the other side”. Both of these forms of loss, whether romantic or not, are explored in Morris’ touching lyrics and in the song’s gorgeous music video, but we are ultimately reassured with the hope of reincarnation and encouraged to embrace and accept change no matter how difficult it is. As much as it is personal, ‘From The Pyre’ is political - deeply concerned with gender. This concern comes to the fore in ‘Rifle’ and ‘Woman is a Tree’, which critique patriarchal domination by indirectly paralleling it with domination over nature and the environment.
Meanwhile, ‘I Hold Your Anger’, led by Aurora Nishevci, is a heartfelt meditation on women’s role as “woman” and “mother” and how these terms can become almost synonymous through certain perspectives – every woman has at some point thought “I don’t know if I’d be a good mother” and many women might feel they are expected to mother another person. Nishevci’s feelings on this seem to be encapsulated in the metaphor “I’m a ship inside a bottle”. Perhaps the same ship that is liberated from these constraints in the choral hymn-like ballad that follows, ‘Sail Away’, where the singer vows “I’m more than a girl, I am a seaside”.
The album closes with ‘Inferno’, a performer’s identity crisis and plea for direction, taking on figures such as Jesus Christ and Joan of Arc while reiterating “Lord, I’m trying”, but these self-doubting lyrics are ultimately swamped by an uplifting melody and echoing vocals of letting go in an ‘Inferno’.
The title ‘From The Pyre’ encompasses exactly what this album is, rooted in personal emotions, frustrations, and pain, but explosively burning with hope and joy. With ethereal harmonies and beautiful, orchestral instrumentals, the album bewitches and enchants, revealing something new with each listen.
Emily Sanderson
Image: ‘From The Pyre’ Official Album Cover
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