Have you ever wanted to dress in gowns and eat a full course meal at a dark, rich, wooden table? You might have wanted for a group of your closest friends to be with you, devouring what is placed in front of you. If you are a follower of dark academia or royalcore, The Last Dinner Party debut album “Prelude to Ecstasy” is a promised invitation to a seat at the most elevated gathering.
While people are claiming “The Last Dinner Party” are industry plants, I believe these people only say this to explain the band’s quick rise to fame. Originally a piano demo created by lead singer Abigail Morris, according to Variety, “Nothing Matters” has become a breakout hit over the course of the past year. It is intrinsically angelic and haunting, a song not to take lightly while listening in the car, at your desk or while on a walk. The song, with its chorus , “And you can hold me like he held her,” symbolizes the finality of one person craving another. As “Nothing Matters” is placed at the end of the album, this finality evoked by the chorus also extends to the finale of “The Last Dinner Party.”
In the album, the band plays with select viral internet themes popularized over the past year; including feminine rage, pretty boy aesthetic and the comparison of art to modern beauty standards. Although I could listen to this album on a deserted island and never get tired of it, most of the songs do sound the same. If you’re looking for a more wide-ranging album, with less operatic pieces, then this one might not be for you. However, I do not want that to undermine how impressive the music truly is from start to finish. Filled with vocal solos, guitar riffs and soft backing drum beats- it is for all the girls, gays, and theys in 2024.
The entire theme of the album (and the separate songs) is quite evocative – it brings the idealistic aspects of romance and the concept of worship to the forefront. “Caesar on a TV Screen” and “Portrait of a Dead Girl” leave absolutely nothing behind with their belting vocals.
One of my qualms with “Prelude to Ecstacy” is the urge to have more. The song “Mirror” closes the soundtrack and it’s over. There is no more whispering, wailing or precise piano chords, just the song fading out completely. Beyond that, the only way “The Last Dinner Party” can improve my experience is by continuing to release more music.
