LISTENING TO - Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party

Oh the hype, its so in your face everywhere. Touted as the next big thing, that they become the next big thing, like a divine prophecy being fulfilled right before your eyes. The Last Dinner Party's image, now much refined in the videos accompanying the release of this album, has them cavorting around in burlesque basques. And as Ronald Firbank might've described it, lots of unnecessary ribbons signifying nothing. 

Evoking the doomed epoch of The Bright Young Things, of aristo's partying before they die either of boredom or war, appears to be their basic shtick here. There is, however, no real sense of irony, hardly a glimmer of arche knowingness. This ought to be stridently camp, but it comes across as well brought up public school g1irls dressing up as tarts and pouting to camera.

Hype is just promotion, and I'm not against promotion if there is something astoundingly good on offer, to feast your ears on. However, I have tested my patience whilst listening to this album. Awaiting the moment when I either get what they are about, or am blown off my socks by one song, or one astonishingly good vocal. Well, they are not here on Prelude to Ecstasy. Nothing orgasmic. What normally comes before a climax, is a lot of foreplay. And that is what this album is, a lot of foreplay. Maybe the second album will produce something so utterly gorgeous I'll be eating these words for breakfast.

Florence Welch loves them, but it's always flattering to see pale imitations of yourself do well. The lyrics are, on ocassions, provocative and gender assertive. There are a lot of dramatic changes in musical time signatures mid song, that brings a certain underlying operatic/music hall vibe. One reviewer likened their songwriting to Sparks, which should have got me salivating in high expectation. And whilst I can detect stylistic whisps of the Mael brothers, they have a way to go before they reach their songwriting heights. There is a sense there maybe a thematic song cycle here. So - indebted - they are.

The first single to drop, Nothing Matters, is quietly captivating. Mainly because it repeats the line, "and I will fuck you like nothing matters' - ad nauseam. The one track I thought proffered a bon bon of something musically vital was My Lady of Mercy, when it lurches into a metal breakout. The one moment when the band metaphorically rip their corsets off. 

A lot of its underwhelming nature maybe due to a low key production. Its quite cautious and perfunctory, even genteel. One wonders if in more creative hands, considerably greater dynamism might have emerged. The lead guitar frequently sounds like a tinny twang, when it could have had a rougher, raw, characterful and more raucous resonance. Live, apparently, The Last Dinner Party, cut quite a different and more entrancing stride, that this album must have entirely failed to capture. A promising but overrated debut. Whatever their target market is, is unclear. Its not me, obviously. 

CARROT REVIEW - 3/8