Mental health

The Last Dinner Party release debut album:Prelude to Ecstasy

5th Feb 2024 — 2 Comments

An audible Banquet of Beauty, brutality and baroque rock.

The Last Dinner Party

Arguably the most talked about band of the last year, The last dinner party are the new reigning monarchs of the rock and roll scene. Corset adorned and sword in hand they are conquering our stages by storm, cordially invited us to basque in their baroque rock ballads and bangers and we do so with valiant might as we all become a united force in the throes of something new, something needed.

Leading up the the release of their debut album TLDP has quickly become a household name in the rock and roll scene, their quick wit, creative intellect seeing them surge to the top of the charts and the forefront of any avid music fans mind.After almost a years wait from the release of debut single ‘Nothing Matters’ ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ is here and we just had to take you on a literary tour of it.

Prelude To Ecstasy

Prelude To Ecstasy TLDP

A cinematic opening to tapestry of opulent vocals, folk tales and femininity. The blisteringly biblical, sensual spirit that embodies this band is ferocious and vibrant in this track, a soundscape the settles you in for what’s to come.

Burn Alive

Operatic and orchestral this song is like standing in candlelight wearing a wet, period dress. You’ve just ran into the Manor House from the raining woods, to find your lover in bed with another. It is a sensual James Bond meets Jane Austen type track which boasts kind of a renaissance painting beauty imagine Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding Her Thigh 1664.

Lead Singer Abigail is ferocious and uplifting in her delivery, her voice both heavy with rage and passion, a desperation fuelled through desire. To listen to this song is to have a spiritual awakening, it feels as though the song itself is burning, as though we are all in the woods, dancing around a fire, burning images of past selves and previous lovers, memorised by the flames.

Caesar on a TV Screen

Controversial perhaps but this one didn’t really hit in the way ‘Sinner’ or ‘My Lady of Mercy’ does. Still a vibrant display of double standards and impossible comparisons, the greatness one could have achieved if they were perceived differently, if they were different.If Caesar was a woman would we still speak his name?

It isn’t one of my skips, I actually don’t have any of those, but I do feel like I am sitting waiting to belt the chorus and then to move on. The video for this is what sells it for me, the theatrical delivery, the vibrant colours, the opulence, the acting done so brilliantly. The stand out lines in this track have got to be;

“When I was a child I never felt like a child I felt like an emperor with a city to burn”

To be venerated, to be applauded just for being a white man, and yes times have changed, and yes men’s mental health is a very important issue that needs to be understood but society is still rife with sexism, still rife with double standards, especially in the music industry. TLDP labelled as industry plants just for their success, why can a woman never just be good because she is? Why must she always prove her worth, why must she always be compared to a male? Never good enough in her own rite, so in a way this song is a satirical take back on these comments, and although it is not my favourite it is done well.

The feminine Urge

Baroque rock. Softness and strength, once seen to be unsettling power in the bones of a woman, this song redefines the boundaries of womanhood, infused with all the love and rage that makes a woman so beautiful. Visceral, a vessel for your entertainment, all eyes are on me but I exist just for you, a man must feel so powerful in the face of the helpless, trying to love but achieving control.

You wish to care for your mother in the way she once cared for you, you wish a man would do the same but its like being in love with a beast who just wants to eat. A visceral depiction of love, loving and despair, Abigail’s voice Lizzie Maryland on guitar,Emily Roberts on lead guitar and Georgia Davies on bass take us back in time to watch women in renaissance come alive and see how our lives still share so many parallels.

On Your Side

On Your Side TLDP

This song epitomises beauty, it is so gorgeous to listen to, so soft and tender but still following that pattern of powerful passion in its delivery, especially with Aurora Nishevci on Keys this piano ballad meets rock baroque makes it that more delicious. Semantics of shame, anxiety, desire and despair never felt so wonderful.

We all have stories we can not share, nights we wish had not happened but want to go back too, the horror and hope that it happened but could happen again. At it’s core, for me, it is about being with someone you shouldn’t be with in their time of need, in their time of ruin. And because you are there for them you convince yourself they could be there for you too, they could love you in the way you love them the cognitive dissonance of convincing yourself of this while knowing it not to be true.

Beautiful boy

Oh to be loved a way a man is loved. man merely breathes and he is admired, venerated for his accomplishments whilst a woman must bleed, must break her bones in order to earn love. Eyes devour her always but they never really see.

Emily’s flute offers an ethereal edge to this track, a white linen shirt and golden light, halo beauty surrounds this boy (Think Jacob Elordi in Saltburn), but why? Who has put this light on him? and how does a woman get that?

Gjuha 

An introspective track predominantly sung by Aurora , offering insight into her culture and background. The disconnect and difficulty she feels while living in England, as someone with a Greek and Albanian background, having spent most of her time living in England she struggles with the loss of her cultural identity, relying on dictionaries to remind herself of her language, acknowledging her difficulty to communicate clearly through floating falsettos that boast a dream like quality.

Sentimentality of unfulfilled corridors of opportunity and the passing of time this song boasts a distinctive heartfelt humanity with Morris joining on vocals, her voice a hand reaching out reminding Nishevci that she’s home with her, with the band.

Sinner

Such a feel good showstopper of a song, embedded in the album the way it ties into the song falling before it is so gorgeous it is such a moorish song that will have you dancing by the second word.This is the part in the dinner party where you have had a few glasses of red wine and there is still time before dessert so you dance, cheery on too much champagne the table becomes your stage. Can’t say too much about this song because I am too busy singing along so check out what I wrote about it after seeing it live in June last year here.

TLDP My Lady Of Mercy.

My Lady of Mercy 

A thunderstorm at your feet this song is full of lightening, dark clouds and open heavens. Full of charm, playful wit and orchestral delivery, like power cursing through my veins, like hope and salt from two sweating bodies, like daggers and jewels this song is a masterpiece, play it in the museums. It is poetry, it is rock, it is the future of music, adorned in a renaissance corset and chainmail. An epiphany in the ears, this song is the sound of stuff happening, it is the pursuit of possibility coming into fruition boldly and beautifully.

Portrait of a Dead Girl 

Again another ethereal track evocative of the painting Beauty and the Beast by Adolphe Weisz, in which a woman lies next to a lion. There is a mutualistic relationship between both, to protect and to feed to guard and to groom, but this is a relationship fuelled by fear not love, the fear that the one protecting on you could turn at any time and devour you whole leaving nothing but rotting rose petals behind.

But to be devoured by the one that you love, the one that swore to protect your perhaps that is the very emanating of it all, to love is so sacrifice, to protect is to sacrifice, when your loved one is starving you would give them your heart to eat if it kept them alive.This song is also about having the strength to be your own protector to slay the beast that demands of you to starve in order for it to stand, is it protecting you or preventing your from leaving, are you held by a golden frame or a fist?

Nothing Matters TLDP April 2019 directed by Saorla Houston & The Last Dinner Party

Nothing Matters 

The beauty of this album is we all know this banger is coming but the power of the other songs do not make us feel as though we are waiting for it.

This is the main course of the meal, we are not starving for it but we are so overjoyed its here we can’t help but sing for our supper. It is a clear, florid floor-filler that will have you yelling the chorus fluently before you’ve heard Morris howl it twice. The monotony of the day, the dread of tomorrow, all drains away.

This song enchants, you may be listening to it alone but you feel the choral spirit of all the others belting it out as you do, the woman inner car on the way to work, the boy in his bedroom singing into his mothers hairbrush, the dad listening to his daughters records and reliving his youth, we are a collective, we are all united as we shout the chorus, our heart running through feels of wild flowers, our businesswear, our stained sweatpants all as light and iterated as period drama dresses, the song serving as a propulsive reminder that perhaps nothing really does matter, other than in this moment, the moment in which we are all together, all dancing to our new favourite song.

Mirror

The only way to be successful is to suffer. A star is only on our radar when it is dying before then it is just part of the vast night sky. We are haunted by images of who we ave been, holding us back from who we could be, standing in the way of who we are now, each version of ourselves stand at the end of our bed and scream with their lost potential, we are all mosaics of who’s, has been and maybes, it is about finding peace with the person we are that matters most. An ode to the untapped talent, the band themselves hold up a mirror to those who are trying, you could be like us, but also to the fact that despite being talented you ill only be known if your talent is perceived by another, their perception must become your personality if you want to prosper. It also evokes the ‘Lady of Shallot’ a Victorian ballet based on a poem by Tennyson about a woman cursed to only perceive the world through the reflection in a mirror, an audible reminder that what we see is rarely reality.

This album ends how it begun, with an orchestral ode to womanhood, to stardom and to spiritual energy that will have to pressing replay.

The band are simply authentically them, talented, intelligent, creative beings and it is unfortunate that their existence as al Ann female/non-binary band makes a statement as it is still seen to be going against the norm especially with their success. Of course they deserve the praise, the recognition, but let’s not put them on a pedestal for simply being who they are, let’s allow for these figureheads to become the norm.

Please go and see them live! Tickets available soon.

A.R.T By The Lottery Winners reviewed.

12th Jun 2023 — 1 Comment

An exploration of grief for oneself, the journey out of mourning, the battle we are all fighting to maintain ourselves, ART offers an upbeat and honest take on what it means to be human.

The Lottery Winners Thom Rylance, Robert Lally, Katie Lloyd, Joe Singleton

Talking to NME about their new album at the start of 2023, The Lottery Winners frontman Thom Rylance said: “I’ve always told my story in our songs. If you’re telling your own story, it’s never going to be boring. When I started assembling these songs, I realised that everyone I wrote was getting a bit lighter, feeling progressively less down.

Play

An omniscient narrator introduces the album as an audible therapy. You are instantly immersed in the kaleidoscope of your mind, are you worried about what you might find? How will you recover what is lost if you do not search for it?

Worry

Who are you when your head is full of worry? Trying to navigate your way through life whilst your mind is jumping to the direst conclusions takes a toll on the soul. Accompanied by raw visuals, depicting the honest scene of a depression pit, a tray from a takeaway you had two weeks ago festering by your bed, a pile of pills on the cabinet, unpaid bills glaring up at you from your nightstand. Every intention to face the day, fully dressed and ready but your funky, floral bedding becomes a straitjacket forcing you to stay.

Punctuated by the discarded first edition copy of the picture of Dorian Gray it can be interpreted that this song discusses the curse we all feel, lamenting our youth, wanting to revisit it and savour our innocence, haunted by who we could have been if we were parented differently, but then they wouldn’t be who we are and would only end up missing them. Gray also suffers from an addiction, an indulgent drug infused escapism that only imprisons you to a false face of reality.

This track echoes the familiar verve and energy from The Lottery Winners but also recreates the imploding pressure your brain puts upon itself in times of desperation. Each track stands as an individual anthem but all work together to reflect a year of frontman Rylance’s life.

Burning House

Burning House Music video by The Lottery Winners.

Sometimes we stay in burning houses just to stay warm, there are fires on the stairs so we stay safe in the living room, the TV loud enough to drown out the roar of the inferno so it becomes nothing more than a whisper, but we know it’s still there. Burning questions feed the flames as you ask yourself who you have become, who you are to the flames and plead with them to stop burning, but that is what a fire does, it destroys.

Katie Lloyd, electric bassist for the band, dominates the track with her uplifting energy,a complete contrast to the depth of the song offering an insight into how some of us act when everything is falling down, stoicism, the danger of saying you’re fine when you’re bleeding through your badly wound bandages.

Money

Money by The Lottery Winners Ft. Shaun Ryder

Featuring Shaun Ryder this song explores what it might feel like to live how we all deserve to life, freely. But how possessing a certain amount of money after having none can corrupt the mind, the more you spend the more you lose your sense of self. Fine line between worth ad greed but when you’ve worked hard, peeling your eyes red to stay alert on that late night shift, picking up more to make ends meet, you have a right to a little touch of luxury.

Outside of this it’s a satirical reflection on what many musicians hope to achieve, after juggling odd jobs, playing countless gigs to half empty rooms, headlining stages getting albums, sharing their success and doing what they love full time. It’s a lesson that, ART, which enriches the soul, offers a hand out of mess is so neglected by finance that the struggling, starving artist has become romanticised, if you’re not suffering you’re not doing it right, but talent should be celebrated, it should be invested in, art is pure, it’s the only thing we have to help us through.

The Lottery Winners.

Long Way Down

A loss of inspiration can send anyone into a sorrowful state of desperation, screaming out to find yourself, only hearing echoes of who you could have been if you had achieved the dream, you sold your soul to achieve. Who could you be if you could go back to your birth and bring yourself up? Resenting your parents for not being the people you needed them to be. Your brain doesn’t feel like your own anymore, tired and run down you cry for who you once were.

Sertraline

What is a skill if it cannot be shared, why sing a song if it won’t be heard, why make art if nobody cares? We live for other people so when there is no one around us why do we continue? When we are lost where do we search? The last place we left of, when did you last see yourself? In a childhood memory? As you rest your head, where does it fall? On the floor of your first home? Who were you then where you used to roam?

Pause

The audible exploration comes to a halt, forcing us to re-connect with reality, has our mindset changed? Will it? The narrator asks us to acknowledge that colours may seem brighter, and we may feel lighter, and then he asks us to imagine our childhood bedroom, the smaller version of who we once were, stares vacantly back at us as we open the door.

Letter to myself- Frank Turner

A Letter To Myself music video by The Lottery Winners ft. Frank Turner

We live our lives in hindsight, wishing we could reverse time in the hope it would change our current situation, but who’s to say if we had enjoyed those days of simplicity, when a summer’s day was full of magic and the biggest stress was completing that week’s homework that anything would be different now?

The only way to change your current situation is by facing yourself and doing it differently. Find forgiveness in reflection, thank your parents for doing what they could, releasing too that they are still human, they were learning too. Sometimes reflection is the only way we can move forward realise that ‘it’s not all plain sailing’ there will be ‘times you’re in front and times that you’re failing’ but this is human and that’s all we can be.

Jennie

It’s the monotony of life you breathe then you die, trapped in a cycle trying to get by. You seek help and people wonder why, that’s just life mate, that’s the way it’s going to be. If this is normality, sell me a fantasy let me breath in some wonderland, promise me you’ll hold my hand?  Through love we escape, ‘travelling to a place where the sun and ocean kiss’ an eternal bliss surely that’s the true meaning of all this, not to work all day in a place we hate.

Let Me Down- Boy George

Enter a neon world full of potential and possibility, drink in the lights and look alive, this is the start of your dazzling new life. ‘Let Me Down’ came from Rylance’s interest in researching pop icons and understanding what makes a song a classic. 

He shared that he was listening to a lot of Boy George’s music and ended up writing a song for him to sing without realising it. The video itself pays homage to George’s career, flamboyant, a beacon paving the way to the next generation of artists.

Tackling insecurity, this track is empowering an audible armour against all those that were supposed to be there for us yet time and time again fail us, from our friends, to our families, to ourselves. Boy George’s vocals are expectedly energetic, powerful yet soothing, voice through all the noise whilst Rylance, Katie Lloyd and Rob Lally add further layers of therapeutic splendour, making this song a cinematic piece.

You’re Not Alone 

A song that reaches out to you whatever it is you’re going through, you have an audible army, marching alongside you in your ears.

This realisation can take a while, in your state you may have pushed people away but there will always be somebody to turn to, there is always someone that cares. When you see a stranger in the street crying, do you worry for them? Do you wonder what’s wrong? Go to them, offer a voice, a hand. We are not alone, ever it just takes the courage to ask for help to realise.

Anxiety Replacement Therapy

This song is a testament to transformation. When it comes to change, we believe it must be a phenomenon, having blonde hair to black, from being fat to having abs, learning the first few chords to writing a song, we celebrate change when it is instantaneous, without realising everything is gradual. The final verse to this track reflects on the album, with references to previous tracks.

“I used to worry about money now I worry about health
Wrote a letter to myself but I left it on the shelf
I’m in a burning house and I’ve gotta get out
But I’m looking out the window, it’s a long way down
I have to call Jennie ’cause I’m having weird dreams
Maybe it’s a sign of the sertraline
But I know that when I call she’ll always answer the phone
She’ll never let me down, I know I’m not alone.”

Our narrator has understood his situation, indulged in and is now trying to change it, seeking prescribed medication, reaching out to friends and looking for ways out of the burning house. Our narrator is trying to be better for themselves, because to be there for ourselves is all we can ask.

Stop

Our omniscient narrator addresses us, a refreshing taste of reality, we are awake in our nightmare now, we can leave this place.

From recently reaching number one, to being in the full throttle of their UK tour The Lottery Winners the band are gritty, colourful and raw. Reality is the core of their sentiments, reflecting on their success Rylance explained: “I always knew we’d do it the hard way. We’re from a working-class mining town in the northwest of England. We’re not from London, we don’t have famous dads. We’re just trying our best, and if people connect to our music, that’s authentic.” 

Mediative and liberating A.R.T is out now, get it here.

Follow them on Spotify and instagram.

Saturn Stars, recently released by The Boy In The Rose Garden is a testament to resilience.

22nd May 2023 — Leave a comment

Why make someone your whole universe when you’re not even a star in their galaxy?

The Boy In The Rose Garden

You’ve fallen in love with a person that feels like a party. The lights just seem to find them, they know every word to the songs on a stranger’s playlist, each beat they move expertly to. The drinks are sweet and your surrounded by friends, time is moving too quickly on the night you don’t want to end but then they’re still at it yet it’s 6 am you wonder when you’ll be home again, your glass is empty and your ears are numb, but their eyes are searching for you, so you continue to move, smile stuck to your face.

You dance, you drink, you stay for them because leaving arm in arm is better than leaving alone. You feel as though you’re in love with a ghost but being haunted is better than being abandoned. Your world is built for them whilst you’re barley a yard of tarmac in theirs, but that doesn’t matter because at least you are there and when their eyes find yours you exist and, in that moment, you know you are everything. You spend your time finding ways to find that fire, you want to burn for them.

In their song Saturn Stars artist The Boy In The Rose Garden explores similar semantics, falling for the person that dropped you, hoping they’ll be the one to catch you. You are only the person of their dreams because you only matter to them when they’re asleep.

Boy in the rose garden

The ethereal vocals entrance you just as the previous lovers once had, you’re death to the eery undertone, a sinister nod to your foreboding future, a sound that places you in a disorientating mist, the confusion of what is is to be in love with someone who seemingly once felt the same for your but now sees you as thick dust on the fireplace, noticed just before a guest comes over.

Their words whip into you, but you’re just happy to bleed for them, to show them you truly love them, to show your devotion as they turn their back on your bones, you’ve learned to feel at home with the sense of being alone. Let go? Would you let go of all that you have When all you have to your name is a stone it becomes a jewel, a throne. You’re home a haunted house full of whispers of who used to roam the halls, figments of what once was but can never be again, the bare body of what could have been, where you throw your keys and lay your head. You had nothing, they provided you with a rag, you use it to wash my skin, bandage your wounds to cover your frail frame as you lay to rest. Holding out your empty hands and your full heart you declare, “this is all I have, and it is my kingdom, if it costs me my life it will have been worth it”.

The Boy In The Rose Garden

If you were a candle, you would set yourself alight to aid their journey to bed in the dead of night. If there were no food in the fridge you would volunteer your soul to keep them fed until Sunday. If all their clothes were to rip you would peel off your skin to keep them. Loving them is the passion that comes with knowing you would give yourself up for them to go on, for who are you to take from the living?

You are the whisper to their crowded room. A crease in their new shoe. You’re being held close, but your being used as a shield protecting them from themselves, what weapons id you bring to a war you did not know you would be fighting? Every bullet they shoot at you reflects how they view themselves, and you willingly make yourself a larger target, convinced you can take it if they promise to love you. That’s all you ask, love me you cry as they feast of your flesh, love me you beg as they wash their hands with your tears, love me you weep as they use your body as a punching bag, at least when they touch you, you are worthy.

Self produced, Saturn Stars ,in itself, is a testament to resilience, an audible lighthouse when you’re in the depths of the dark sea, just because you’re drowning does not mean you should grab onto the first thing that feels solid, a rock will just drag you down deeper, find your lifeboat.

With antoher song coming out in june 2023 promises to be a successful year for The Boy In The Rose Garden. Stay up to date with their releases by follwing them on social media.

(If your situation sounds like this there is help out there. Please reach out. You are not alone.)