The Last Dinner Party are excited to share ‘Second Best’, lifted from forthcoming album From The Pyre[out 17th October 2025 via Island Records].
Written by TLDP guitarist Emily Roberts and informed by the angular pop riffs of Sparks, ‘Second Best’ is about the push and pull of being obsessed with someone but knowing that they will ultimately betray you again, and allowing it to happen because you still love them.
“I wish I could go back and say to myself that I am worth more than that, and that no one needs to accept being second best,” Emily says of the track. “I hope that the song captures the pain, anger and despair I felt but most importantly the defiance and satisfaction I now have in being able to immortalise this person in a song and to look back on the situation with more maturity.”
Once Emily had created the bones of the track, Abi & Lizzie each added their own musical and lyrical stamps before Aurora & Georgia elevated ‘Second Best’ further with buoyant, dancing keys and a formidable bassline respectively.
‘Second Best’ is our third preview of The Last Dinner Party’s forthcoming second album From The Pyre, following western-flecked earworm ‘This Is The Killer Speaking’ and the introspective slow burn of ‘The Scythe’.
The London five-piece headed into the studio early 2025 with Grammy Award winning producer Markus Dravs (Wolf Alice, Florence & The Machine, Bjork) to start work on the followup to their number 1 debut album, 2023’s Prelude to Ecstasy. From The Pyre is the sound of a band having a lot of fun rather than feeling any innate pressure to follow-up on what was an explosively successful debut record. It’s also the sound of a young band developing and maturing their songwriting together, as tight a unit as the endless months out on the road pay testament to.
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.”
With two BRIT Awards to their name (including Breakthrough Artist earlier this year), and having sold out virtually every show they played right across the globe (including three soldout hometown shows at London’s Eventim Apollo), The Last Dinner Party’s arrival and subsequent worldwide success was one of the most thrilling introductions to a new British band in decades, and From The Pyre’s opening introduction suggests that unparalleled success story shows no signs of relenting.
Pre–order From The Pyre here.
Tickets for The Last Dinner Party’s tour are available here
Outstore Live Dates:
15th October – Pryzm, Kingston (w/ Banquet Records) *Matinee* – SOLD OUT
15th October – Pryzm, Kingston (w/ Banquet Records) *Evening* – SOLD OUT
17th October – The Level, Nottingham (w/ Rough Trade) *Matinee* – SOLD OUT
17th October – The Level, Nottingham (w/ Rough Trade) *Evening* – SOLD OUT
19th October – 1865, Southampton (w/ Vinilo Records) – SOLD OUT
20th October – HMV Empire, Coventry (w/ HMV) – SOLD OUT
22nd October – Live House, Dundee (w/ Assai) – SOLD OUT
23rd October – The Dome, Liverpool (w/ Rough Trade) – SOLD OUT
UK Headline Tour:
14th November – 3Arena, Dublin
17th November – Corn Exchange, Edinburgh
18th November – Barrowland, Glasgow
20th November – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
21st November – Octagon, Sheffield
23rd November – Bridlington Spa, Bridlington
25th November – UEA, Norwich
26th November – Aviva Studios, Manchester
29th November – The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton
30th November – The Prospect Building, Bristol – SOLD OUT
2nd December – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
4th December – Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth
5th December – Brighton Centre, Brighton
7th December – O2 Academy Brixton, London – SOLD OUT
8th December – O2 Academy Brixton, London
credit: Rachell Smith
