The Last Dinner Party: Singles of 2023
by Lana Fleischli
It’s been a minute! During my first semester of college, I didn’t have much extra time to write, and I was in such a music rut. I had no idea what was out or who to check out because I go to school in the middle of nowhere. My mom kept telling me about the UK-based band The Last Dinner Party. I mentally noted it and forgot about it until November. I was surprised that they have only released music in 2023 and all of their songs are singles. They have their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy coming out on February 2nd, 2024. Made up of five women named Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, Aurora Nishevci, they have created their own individual spin on indie rock of the 2020s. Combining choral singing and 80’s style drum solos, The Last Dinner Party has established themselves as one of the rising rock bands.
Their biggest song is called “Nothing Matters.” This song immediately transported me to an era before my own– the 1970’s. My first thought was “ABBA vibe?”. I wasn’t able to place it, but it has this very communal choral voice to it. They all sing in harmony in the chorus and it creates a vibrant visual, which to me, felt very 1970’s coded. At the end, however, a very late 70’s to early 80’s style drum solo kicks in. It feels very different from the rest of the song, but it fits. I love when artists bend genres, and while I do see that here, I also notice a fusion of eras and the influence of all kinds of artists, which is a very impressive feat.
I have really enjoyed the song “Sinner” because it has a very sultry tone to it that is vastly different from “Nothing Matters”. It plays with intensity and hardness that has lately been unexpected by women in music. Even though it is still very much their music, they have the ability to go from soft to hard and even play with that juxtaposition in their songs.
The idea and feel of soft and hard really come through in their song “My Lady Of Mercy”. They have their beautiful voices that are up in an octave I could never sing, while the music has a heaviness to it, strengthening their voices. It adds an evenness. However, in “On Your Side” the main focus is truly the voice and the story because it is emotional and vulnerable. There is less auditorial complexity, but it really works. Again, evenness and ability to handle both the more rock heavy side versus the softer feminine side. It makes them memorable. Also, if you know me, you know I love a badass girl band.
The thing is, singles must be able to stand alone– must be enough on their own, or else the audience isn’t hooked. The Last Dinner Party has done a great job of catching attention and keeping it. Each song is so different from the others that they function strongly as singles. At the same time, while The Last Dinner Party’s music has their own voice and originality behind it, they play with the recognizable sounds of indie rock. It makes their music, which all have different influences and energies, a conglomeration of their voice and I’m so ready to see what they have in store.