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Prelude to Ecstasy is British indie rock band The Last Dinner Party’s debut album, freshly released on Feb 2nd of 2024 (i.e. this year, at the time of writing). Much like Wet Leg, another British indie band with a focus on the feminine, they seemingly popped onto the mainstream out of nowhere with a healthy amount of promotion and their sound already strongly established. Of course, cue the accusations of them being industry plants. I am not in fact blind to the pattern of these accusations primarily being leveraged against female-led bands unfortunately.

That being said, male or female, I do not care if you are an industry plant or not. If the music is good, that is all that matters. In this case – the music absolutely bangs. Though the lyrical writing of the group isn’t the strongest, every other aspect of the album from the instrumentals to the aesthetics and tracklist is very well done.

Of course, I myself happen to be a fan of other baroque pop artists like Weyes Blood and Fiona Apple that The Last Dinner Party bears heavy sonic resemblance too, so this album might not be your thing if you don’t enjoy those artists. That being said, Prelude to Ecstasy is a very well-done album with a lot more mainstream accessibility than more alternative artists of that niche: The production is experienced, there is a good display of variety throughout the 12-tracks, and the album is unafraid to lean in on classical camp, with its theatrical vocals and classical music interludes and instrumentation. It is rare for a group to nail their sound so spectacularly on the debut, but this is definitely one of the stronger indie act debuts, and I am of the bold opinion that they are one to look out for in the coming years if they keep up this quality and attention to detail.

Best Track(s): “Caesar on a TV Screen”, “The Feminine Urge”, “Gjuha”, “Nothing Matters”

Rating: 7.5/10