British indie rock faves The Last Dinner Party are back with a bite on new single “Second Best” via Island Records. The track bites as hard as it bleeds. The five-piece Georgia Davies bass, Lizzie Mayland guitar, Abigail Morris vocals, Aurora Nishevci keyboards, and Emily Roberts guitar have made their name on bold storytelling and striking rock, and the third taste of their sophomore album record, From The Pyre, is no different.
Penned by the band’s guitarist, Emily Roberts, and produced by Markus Dravs, who has also worked with Arcade Fire and Coldplay, “Second Best” overflows with emotion, its lyrical heart divided between obsession and heartbreak, resignation and rebellion. “Second Best is the push and pull of being obsessed with the idea of someone who has hurt you significantly, knowing they are going to do it again.
That duality throbs through the song, jagged riffs and anthemic choruses butt up against an underbelly of openness. Abigail Morris delivers the vocals with the urgency of someone moving between a yearning for something more and clarity on its own potent terms. The result is a song that sounds both intimate and anthemic, a portrait of heartbreak that dares to indulge in its scars.
After the grim urgency of “The Scythe” and the knife-edge storytelling of “This is the Killer Speaking,” “Second Best” broadens from The Pyre’s emotional palette. The first singles, if they were lit matches of fire, this one is the roar. The Last Dinner Party is not merely a chronicler of pain, but an alchemist transforming such into art.
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