The Last Dinner Party tease aesthetic shift for album two: "It’s steampunk, baby!"

8 August 2024, 11:35 | Updated: 8 August 2024, 12:26

By Jenny Mensah

The band's Lizzie Mayland and Aurora Nishevci revealed they're working on the follow-up to their Prelude to Ecstasy album.

The Last Dinner Party have talked about their next album and how they plan to shift their sound.

The band - comprised of Georgia Davies, Lizzie Mayland, Abigail Morris, Aurora Nishevci and Emily Roberts - released their debut effort Prelude to Ecstasy in February 2024 and it went straight to number one on the UK Albums Chart.

Now, talking about its follow-up, keyboardist Nishevci told NME: "We’ve started writing songs for album two. So we’re starting to get ideas. We’ve not set out a concept for it, but we know we want to shift away aesthetically from album one, in terms of how we dress and the whole world. It’s still connected, but moving on to something a bit different.

"Something new," added guitarist Mayland. "Something new. Also, we all went shopping a lot in Japan and I feel like that’s really changed the aesthetic."

Nishevci teased: "It's cemented a new thing for us," before the Nothing Matters guitarist exclaimed: "It’s steampunk, baby! Let’s go!"

Meanwhile, the band first studio album - which scored the biggest first week album sales for nearly a decade - has been recognised in the shortlist for The 2024 Mercury Prize Albums of the Year.

The record is among the nominated albums in the awards which celebrates the best UK and Irish records of the last year.

It has been listed alongside studio efforts the likes of BERWYN's Who Am I, Cat Burns' Early Twenties, CMAT's Crazymad, for Me, Charli XCX's Brat, English Teacher's This Could Be Texas and Ghetts' On Purpose, With Purpose.

“We’re very humbled to be nominated for the Mercury Prize,” Nishevci told the outlet. “We did not expect it at all. It’s a stellar line-up, got a bit of Brat in there, English Teacher; it’s phenomenal. It’s such a prestigious award.”

See the full list below:

The 2024 Mercury Prize 12 Albums of the Year. Picture: Press

Who are the 2024 Mercury Prize nominees?

Barry Can't Swim - When Will We Land?
BERWYN - Who Am I
Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Cat Burns - Early Twenties
Charli xcx - BRAT
CMAT - Crazymad, for Me
Corinne Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows
corto.alto - Bad with Names
English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
Ghetts - On Purpose, With Purpose
Nia Archives - Silence Is Loud
The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy

Find out more about the albums here.

The band also recently covered Blondie's Call Me for Triple J's Like A Version series.

Watch their take on the '80s classic below:

The Last Dinner Party cover Blondie’s ‘Call Me’ for Like A Version

The year shows no sign of stopping down for The Last Dinner Party, as they continue their tour dates in North America before heading back to Europe to play festival dates at Rock en Seine in Paris and Reading and Leeds 2024.

The baroque rockers will then embark on their own sold out tour, which will culminate in three homecoming gig at London's Eventim Apollo.

Visit thelastdinnerparty.co.uk to see their full itinerary and more.