The Last Dinner Party – From The Pyre (Island) (13th Floor Album Review)
The Last Dinner Party is back, with a sublime return in the form of their new album From The Pyre. An explorative, darker record than their previous work, it’s even better than their debut (which received impressive acclaim across the board).
The album opens with Agnus Dei, a soaring triumph that showcases lead singer Abigail Morris’ dramatic vocals. Drawing on the story of the first record, it’s a fitting beginning that promises the eventual traversing of many landscapes, both sonic and lyrical. The track is inclusive of everything from Mother Earth and Joan of Arc to scythes, cowboys and floods.
Count The Ways is again brimming with rich imagery from the get-go. It features lyrics like ‘like the snake bite, let it crawl under your skin and eat you from within’ and ‘it’s alright, the bitterness is growing.’ The riffs sound similar to those of the famed Arctic Monkeys track R U Mine (if you know, then you know) while the harmonies are willowy and graceful.
Then comes Second Best, which was undoubtedly inspired by 70s rock (like Fleetwood Mac) with a bit of 90s thrown into the mix. The song opens with choral-style singing, transitioning into almost-frantic piano beats as Morris sings about falling in love with someone who perceives you to be the backup option.
The lead single, This Is the Killer Speaking, is undoubtedly the album’s high point. It’s some of the best fun you’ll probably have listening to music this year, with each section feeling like part of a murder mystery. On the surface, it’s simply about a murder being committed – but if you read into it further, the ‘murder’ is in fact the failure of a relationship that could have been saved by communicating honestly from the jump. This type of clever wordplay is surely part of the reason why The Last Dinner Party has, in such a short time, amassed an extremely dedicated fan base.
Rifle is the album’s centrepiece, characterised by its piano-driven ballads and psychedelic undertones. It also features guitar and a surprising final verse in French, again highlighting the band’s dexterity and desire to lean into sophistication.
Woman Is a Tree leans heavily into the theme of betrayal, coming across like a commentary on both meditation and resilience, while Hold Your Anger presents as a raw, aching reflection. The instrumentals in both only serve to further amplify the emotional devastation, with light percussion and dulled strings.
By the time Sail Away arrives in the ears of the listener, they’re likely already wrecked, grappling with the rawness of From the Pyre’s complexity. But there’s more heartbreaking poetry to come in this song, as Morris sings mournfully about forgetting memories and the presence of someone in your life. There are also delicate metaphors, including ‘I am not a girl, I am a seaside.’
Track 9, The Scythe, is not the album’s strongest – but no matter, because album closer The Inferno is undoubtedly one of the most sonically expansive moments on From the Pyre, coming full circle. The last note of the first song is even the same as the first note on the opening track, a situation that was apparently not deliberate but which still works as apt bookends. This last song is fitting considering the imagery conjured by the fires of hell – The Last Dinner Party have made it clear that they are unafraid to languish in the chaos of their creations, and draw the audience into their beautifully tragic worlds of mythos and wonder.
The Last Dinner Party are playing in NZ in early 2026 with Sir Chloe as the opener.
Chantal Dalebroux
