The Last Dinner Party have released new single ‘The Scythe’, the second preview of their forthcoming second album ‘From The Pyre’, due 17th October.
First written by vocalist Abigail Morris in her teens, the track is presented as a slow-burn ballad that broadens the London five-piece’s songwriting palette. It follows July’s ‘This Is The Killer Speaking’.
Abigail says: “This song began 9 years ago, like a prophecy. I wrote it before I had known anything of grief or heartbreak, how a relationship ending feels exactly the same as that person dying. Once you know how it feels to lose someone you enter a new realm from which you can never return. You’re trying to reach them telepathically through psychics or song lyrics (sometimes those two become the same) and sometimes they give you a reply. It can take 9 years to realise you’re even grieving at all but once you do you see them everywhere – in a robin, in a street fox, in a Wim Wenders film. The Scythe comes for everyone and you shouldn’t be afraid about what’s on the other side.”
The accompanying video, directed by Fiona Jane Burgess, is available to watch now. “The music video for ‘The Scythe’ is one of our proudest and most intimate. From one angle it’s a celebration of all the relationships that make it so far you both feel like you can live forever, from another it’s the fantasy of imagining what it would look like if your parents had been able to grow old together.”
‘From The Pyre’ was recorded with producer Markus Dravs, known for work with Wolf Alice, Florence + The Machine and Björk. It follows the band’s 2023 debut ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’.
The Last Dinner Party on ‘From The Pyre’: “This record is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. ‘The Pyre’ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light.
“The songs are character driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos. We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves.”
“This record feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated an opulent table. It also feels metatextual and cheeky in places, like a knowing look reflected back at ourselves.”
The band have outlined UK, European and international dates into early 2026, including two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.
The dates read:
OCTOBER
15 Pryzm, Kingston, UK
15 Pryzm, Kingston, UK
17 The Level, Nottingham, UK
17 The Level, Nottingham, UK
19 1865, Southampton, UK
20 HMV Empire, Coventry, UK
22 Live House, Dundee, UK
23 The Dome, Liverpool, UK
NOVEMBER
14 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland
17 Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, UK
20 O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK
23 Bridlington Spa, Bridlington, UK
26 Aviva Studios, Manchester, UK
29 The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK
30 The Prospect Building, Bristol, UK
DECEMBER
2 Utilita Arena, Cardiff, UK
4 Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth, UK
5 Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK
7 O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK
8 O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK
2026
JANUARY
10 Red Hill Auditorium, Perth, Australia
13 AEC Theatre, Adelaide, Australia
15 Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Australia
17 ICC Sydney Theatre, Sydney, Australia
19 Riverstage, Brisbane, Australia
22 Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
FEBRUARY
8 Colisieu dos Recreios, Lisbon, Portugal
10 Sala La Riviera, Madrid, Spain
11 Razzmatazz, Barcelona, Spain
13 Fabrique, Milan, Italy
14 The Hall, Zurich, Switzerland
16 Zenith, Munich, Germany
17 Forum Karlín, Prague, Czechia
19 Gasometer, Vienna, Austria
20 COS Torwar, Warsaw, Poland
22 UFO im Velodrom, Berlin, Germany
23 Palladium, Cologne, Germany
25 Le Zénith, Paris, France
27 Forest National, Brussels, Belgium
MARCH
1 AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands
3 Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark
4 Fållan, Stockholm, Sweden
6 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway
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