Prelude To Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party
Track List:
Prelude to Ecstasy
Burn Alive
Caesar on a TV Screen
The Feminine Urge
On your Side
Beautiful Boy
Gjuha
Sinner
My Lady of Mercy
Portrait of a Dead Girl
Nothing Matters
Mirror
My prelude to Prelude to Ecstasy
This is an album I have been planning on listening to since just before Thanksgiving. I was introduced to this band by a friend who had heard Nothing Matters, to me it sounded like a Zeppelin and Floyd inspired piece. Since listening to that I also heard Sinner and Caesar on a TV Screen. I thought that Sinner was the most pop hit style but was a bit brash which may narrow it’s appreciative audience. I had only passively listened to Caesar on a TV Screen. Here is my listen.
Prelude to Ecstasy
The album starts with a symphonic instrumental piece. Really sets the stage for potentially big things to come. This is unlike the songs I had previously heard by the band. I’m excited to see where this goes.
Burn Alive
This song is more akin to what I was expecting from listening to their singles before release. The song is a story of a relationship that is toxic. Both partners have vices, one being an alcoholic and the narrator is addicted to her partner. In the chorus she screams that she isn’t what she wants to be. The line “Let me make my grief a commodity” makes me think she is talking about where she has poured her heart and soul into songs and now they are finding success and her sadness is being consumed by the masses. She then indicates she does what she needs to survive. The next part of the chorus she claims she is cold but is standing in the flames of her partner to keep her warm and alive. This is part of the addiction to the partner. She knows the relationship is toxic yet she keeps it because it makes her feel. The second verse cements the relationship as toxic more. She says she is at the stake and smells like gas, another chance to burn? The reference to bite marks on her back and not being able to say no, again with the need for the partner. I really like the line “I’d break off my rib to make another you” Wow! This woman loves/needs her partner so much she is willing to go Biblical. The bridge works well here and also shows the dependence upon her partner. The song ends with the chorus being played again then overlapping vocals and a variation on the chorus.
Caesar on a TV Screen
So this was the second song I had heard from The Last Dinner Party. I knew I was going to be listening to the album and wasn’t as impressed with this song compared to Nothing Matters. I didn’t do a critical listen prior to now. The lyrics tell a story that the narrator wants to be important. She first says if she was a man she wouldn’t feel like she cannot talk to others. In the next verse she tells a story about as a child she would pretend to be an emperor. In the chorus they reference Leningrad, seems odd for a band whose first album is coming out now to reference a city that hasn’t existed in over 30 years, even more so when it appears most the members of the band likely didn’t co-exist with the city. But I think there is perhaps a casual fascination with communism in general.
The Feminine Urge
The vocals really shine here. The lyrics tell that the narrator feels underappreciated due to being a woman. She specifically speaks out against just accepting the role of a woman in society.
On your Side
The lead singer is again singing about a toxic partner. There is another reference to being bitten. I thought it may have just been a lyrical choice to talk about the bite mark on her back in the song Burn Alive but it seems to be a running theme. The end of the song is haunting with the arp bells, drone, and struggling sounds of breathing. Sounds a lot like The Antlers. That gives me chills.
Beautiful Boy
Another song about a relationship that isn’t exactly healthy. This time the partner has either broken up with the narrator and moved on or is just openly cheating with the narrator’s knowledge. She laments this is due to him being such a beautiful boy. She feels that she is constrained to live her life as is and has no control. The rest of the song is a haunting repetition of the title with the only change is the narrator wishes she could be a beautiful boy. I think this is because she feels that perhaps she would have more freedom. I would also be interested in a perspective from a transgender person to see if they would feel that the narrator is perhaps closeted. I suspect that this isn't the case just because there has been a focus on gender and traditional gender roles over the course of the album. .
Gjuha
Well I don’t speak whatever language this is. I hear an organ, a plucked string instrument, layers and layers and layers and layers and layers of vocals. It’s very pretty. At the end of the song there is a very short part that sounds to me like it was something sped up to twice speed and played in reverse. I will explore this later.
Edit: It is the next day. I recorded the end of this track, tried reversing, speeding up, slowing . It doesn't become anything obvious. I think it's an artifact of production and wrapping all the sounds at the end of this song and transitioning into the next. When I listened while writing I had paused after this song, when listened to and allowing it to flow into the next song it's not as noticable.
Time to use something to translate this song into English and see if I can guess.
Language
It may take some time
Time to talk about it
No, he didn't speak
Wipe your mouth
my language
Prishtina
Sdi translated it
I can take some time
I lost my tongue
I never learned
Weather without dictionaries
My beautiful
My destiny
I never saw you
The song is in Albanian. Prishtina is the capital of Kosovo. Maybe the song is about learning Albanian? I don’t know. But I bet the plucked string instrument is also a stringed instrument traditionally used in Kosovo or the region, like a Serbian mandolin or something. It’s a really pretty song.
Sinner
This is more of a traditional rock song. I think it leans into shock rock like Poppy. I think the narrator is talking about how she used to like the “bad guy” or something but now something has changed and she no longer has that feeling. She either grew out of that attraction or the “bad guy” became more acceptable and now she doesn’t have the same feelings. I honestly have no clue what the “bad guy” is, it could be a kink or a drug. But she no longer gets her thrill from whatever it is. This also has the second religious reference I recall, a line in On Your Side starts with “Forgive me, father”. I suspect the songwriter served some time in a Catholic school.
My Lady of Mercy
Perhaps I should have paid attention when I was typing song names and the Catholic references would have been much more obvious. This song is fun to listen to. I can hear a clear Queen influence and they do capture the epic sound there. I’ve read the lyrics and I can’t say for sure but I think this could be about having a crush on a nun. It’s a bit on the nose. There is also the chant that sounds excited to be hit. The narrators have already talked about being bit for pleasure multiple times.
Portrait of a Dead Girl
So I wonder if Rob Zombie will be involved here….
I don’t think Rob Zombie was involved here…
I think we got their version of a Pink Floyd song. The song is about trying to get out of a toxic relationship.
Nothing Matters
This was the first song I heard from this album. Before this critical listen I thought the lyric “I will fuck you, like nothing matters.” was for shock value. I’ve changed my mind. This is about how she feels in the toxic relationship and she is hopeless and that lyric works better than the one that Courtney Love came up with..
Mirror
This also has very heavy Floyd inspiration. A comment on stardom. In order for someone to be a star someone has to pay attention to them. They contemplate suicide as a way to immortalize themselves. It ends cinematically and in a stark contrast to the song.
Why this amazed me
Talk about leaning into discomfort and insecurity. This is a raw look at the lives of these bandmates, or very compelling fiction. I would almost like this to be a work of fiction because it’s dark. The narrator tells about her desires to get famous, her awareness of being in a toxic relationship and wanting to break free from it, being hopeless and desperate. If this is fiction then that means the songwriters didn't have to experience what the songs are about. There is also a frame around the album. The first song and the last part of the last song were unlike the rest of the album. Sure there were orchestral parts in the album but those two parts were like an introduction before a play and then an outro. Also some of the shock value stuff in the album reminds me of Poppy's first few albums. The music is good, like the last 3 tracks really remind me of Pink Floyd, I can also hear influences from Queen, Led Zeppelin, Bjork, I could keep going and it's not a bad thing. Either way I am a fan.
