With it having been two years since their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, The Last Dinner Party unleashed onto the stage of baroque-pop their new album From the Pyre. The band released three singles this past year (2025), each helping build momentum for the full project’s release.
From the Pyre abandoned the ethereal aesthetic of its predecessors and explored the darker and more grimy aspects of The Last Dinner Party’s sound. The album art is more creative, and it strays away from the standard of band members posing together. It tells a more intentional story with its pictured bandmates playing multiple Medievalist and contemporarily-costumed visual roles, each attached to a different song, as seen in the lyric videos. It’s chaotic and flamboyant – everything The Last Dinner Party aims to be.
From the singles, “Second Best” was certainly one of my favorites and brought me back to the first song that got me into the band itself––“Caesar on a TV screen’––strong vocals yet so hopelessly sarcastic, with an egotistical and self-deprecating tone that really resonated with me.
“Ain’t it nice? Second best? Oh, ain’t good? Second best!”
This part of the chorus, filled with spite and vulnerability, is so fun to belt out. Based on the experiences of Emily Roberts, lead guitarist, and the ways in which an old relationship left her feeling second best. The Last Dinner Party loves to pour their life out into their songs, creating a sonic space for people to feel understood, to feel known. This particular song initially gained a great deal of traction, having been performed on their previous tour 2024/2025 tour. In retrospect, the lyric video––which featured Roberts as a Valkyrie-like figure wielding a sword––received one of the funniest and most accurate comments to describe the lasting impression of the track: “Sounds like Kate Bush fronting Queen while Freddie Mercury plays the piano.” To me, this is the utmost highest of compliments.
My absolute favorite song from the record, the track that I have had on repeat since its release, is “Woman Is A Tree.” Within the intro of the song, the bandmates release a harmonized bellow that sounds as if it belongs in the TV show, Yellowjackets. With its vaguely ancestral and classical sonic atmosphere, it is no wonder the track resonates with fans as belonging in the teen, cannibalistic-cult show.
“Woman is a tree
Livid hero, I am here
With deluxe understanding, I’ll shelter your soul
Sister of mine, you will never grow cold.”
Evidently, this is one song that truly makes me feel as if I am ascending, that The Last Dinner Party may be preparing to sacrifice me… but I could not be happier. Further, there are countless layers of analysis to be made: it could be an exploration of femininity, with its abundant biblical allusions to Eve and the forbidden tree abundant, or perhaps it is a universal expression of the primordial rage hidden in everyone.
With the tour dates of both the Europe and North America Tours released, I am ecstatic to see the group in concert for their London tour date. To be in the room where they perform all those songs––surrounded by everyone decked in their best regal outfits and belting their hearts out––is definitely something I am looking forward to.
