The Last Dinner Party: the new album from the UK band of the moment

The Last Dinner Party’s second album, “From the pyre”, is coming out, obviously highly anticipated given the critical and public success achieved with their debut album, “Prelude to Ecstasy”. The band’s debut album – here’s our review – went straight to number one on the British charts, making it, among other things, the best-selling album in the first week of its release in the last nine years. The band then received the Rising Star Award at the 2004 BRITs and won the BBC Sound of… 2024 referendum. Brian May of Queen called them “the new queens of British rock”.

Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies and Aurora Nishev have been together since 2020 and had already highlighted themselves with the first single for Island, “Nothing Matters”.

Their rise was meteoric.

“It was scary at first: in a week we went from being a small independent band to finding ourselves inside a huge marketing machine. It was like jumping into the void. But we are aware of the luck we had: many of our friends have been playing for years without the same opportunities. We had the chance to create and be heard, and this is a privilege.”

Last Dinner Party had already released a first preview of the new album in July, with the western-tinged single “This is the killer speaking”.

Then came another taste of the project, with “The scythe”.

Speaking of the album arriving on Friday 17 October, the five girls anticipated:

“This record is a collection of stories linked together by the concept of the album as myth. “The pyre” is an allegorical place from which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction, but also of regeneration, passion and light. The songs are character-centric, but still remain deeply personal, everyday events taken to pathological extremes. Being ghosted becomes a western dance with a killer, and the broken heart laughs in your face to the apocalypse. The lyrics evoke guns, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc and burning infernos. We found these types of evocative images to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss our experiences, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”

And then they added some details:

“We liked the idea of ​​fire as an ambivalent symbol: it is something beautiful but also destructive, purifying and at the same time dangerous. We imagined our songs as sparks that break away from that pyre and spread into the world. And ‘Pyre’ is also a word with a fascinating sound, with a medieval flavour”.

What to expect from the new album? The girls reply:

“The new album is a natural evolution. It reflects the maturity we have reached as a band. We didn’t try to repeat the past, but neither did we try to go in the opposite direction. ‘From The Pyre’ represents who we are today”

Last Dinner Party recently expressed their admiration for David Bowie:

“We are fascinated by his ability to continually reinvent himself. He cut and reassembled words, created characters, built unique sound universes. He collaborated with extraordinary musicians and knew how not to take himself too seriously, while remaining incredibly bold. He was free, like a child who creates without limits.”

The tour linked to “From the pyre” will also pass through Italy on February 13, 2026, when the quintet will perform on the stage of the Fabrique in Milan.

Below is the tracklist of “From the Pyre”:

1.	“Agnus Dei”	5:33
2.	“Count the Ways”	3:58
3.	“Second Best”	3:31
4.	“This Is the Killer Speaking”	4:54
5.	“Rifle”	4:31
6.	“Woman Is a Tree”	3:57
7.	“Hold Your Anger”	4:21
8.	“Sail Away”	3:59
9.	“The Scythe”	4:45
10.	“Hell”	3:29