Album of the Month - February 2024

The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy

Island

Fresh off the back of their Rough Trade On The Rise induction, ready yourself for a real baroque pop rager with soaring operatic choruses, shredded guitar solos and an impactful defiance.

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Who

Abigail Morris on vocals, Georgia Davies on bass, Lizzie Mayland on guitar, Aurora Nishevci on keys and Emily Roberts on lead guitar. The all-female five-piece share that their "original name was inspired by the idea of a huge debauched dinner party where people came together to celebrate with a hedonistic banquet". This concept is clear in their distinctive and well-defined goth-glam aesthetic as they dress in blood-stained tops, tunics and velvet dresses, as the band told Rolling Stone: "We like to go between the grotesque and the beautiful". The BRIT Rising Star Award-winning band now unleash one of the year’s biggest breakthrough records, a blazoning sound where dark guitar rock meets theatrical baroque pop expression.

What

With unconventional but evocative lyrics, Prelude to Ecstasy takes inspiration from the band's favourite romantic poets to rip into ideas of gender, identity and femininity with sharp storytelling. The album's unpredictable tempo could take cues from Bowie’s finest glam rock moments and the swooping, dramatic vocals are reminiscent of the haunting but beautiful melodies of Kate Bush. Despite drawing comparisons to these classic artists the quintet are very much in their own lane as a band who are prepared to take risks, inspired not just by renaissance stylings but powerful, raw emotion.

With

For fans of: David Bowie, Kate BushChappell Roan and Ethel Cain.


Don't Miss...

Browse our full list of Rough Trade Edit titles and listen to/follow our dedicated Album of the Month Spotify playlist below.


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