Kate Bush is back! No, not really, but this sophomore album from the English art/baroque pop group, The Last Dinner Party, gives major The Dreaming or Hounds of Love vibes. I know I’m not even close to the first person to make this connection, but just listen to a song like “The Scythe” and tell me it doesn’t sound like the English queen’s ’80s era.
From The Pyre takes you on a medieval trip, pulling from modern relationships and mythical stories that sound ripped out of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Lead singer, Abigail Morris, really flexes her operatic range on songs like “Inferno” and “This is the Killer Speaking,” the latter of which has gorgeous vocal harmonies that sound like a full choir at times. It’s also the maximalist and orchestral vibe—that makes tracks like the indie rock opener “Agnus Dei,” the slow-burning “Rifle,” and the viking-tinged “Woman is a Tree,” an invigorating feel. “Second Best” also leads the Queenish rock opera vibe that I think The Last Dinner Party were going for.
These songs feel huge, layered in such a way that it sometimes feels like the soundtrack to a rowdy Shakespearean musical or grimy Britpop street fight. I prefer the sometimes darker and definitely more theatrical vibe than their debut LP, Prelude to Ecstasy. The band also enlisted the help of close to 30 backup musicians on cello, viola, violin, trombone, French horn, and saxophone. The ladies really didn’t fuck around with this release.
I gotta give props to the album art too; with its Hieronymus Bosch inspired style, showing so many histrionic pockets, maybe referencing some of the themes on the album? Hard to say, but it’s a visual spectacle.
