‘This is the Killer Speaking’: What The Last Dinner Party’s new single says about their comeback
With every hyped release, there quickly comes the predictable follow-up question: “What’s next?”
We’re seeing it with Charli XCX’s ‘Brat era’ and Chappell Roan’s grip on pop. We saw it with Wet Leg for years until their recent sophomore album, and arguably, it’s rarely been louder than the chorus crying out for the second chapter of The Last Dinner Party. With that call finally being answered, their second album announced, and the first track, ‘This is the Killer Speaking’, being released, it’s become clear that the answer was under everyone’s nose the whole time.
The Last Dinner Party have been a fascinating phenomenon. The misogynistic machine of music fans truly worked against them as the cogs of mistrust in talented women tried just about everything rather than just accepting their skills. They were hit with the boring accusation of being an ‘industry plant’ due to their swift rise with the release of their debut track, ‘Nothing Matters’, but the thing is that the band have a thorough paper trail, tracking things back to the start.
Though deleted now, you were previously able to search ‘Amorina’ on Soundcloud and hear a teenage Abigail Morris singing an early demo version of ‘Mirror’. Go on YouTube and you can find footage of their first gigs when they were simply The Dinner Party. Trace those live clips from then to now, and every step of development is on stage and on public display. You can hear the songs from their debut take shape, see the band get tighter and watch Morris become more and more of a showman behind the mic. They’ve never hidden anything.
And neither did they hide their comeback. Anyone who’s seen The Last Dinner Party in the last year has likely heard ‘This is the Killer Speaking’. By trial running the track live, the band are clearly out to replicate previous successes.
Before Prelude To Ecstacy was released, the band’s shows were just as loud. People were singing along to those album tracks long before they were released as the band’s presence on the live scene, and the sheer catchiness of those songs, led to them being known and already loved before they landed on Spotify. It also allowed the band assurance that the songs worked. There were plenty performed in those early days that didn’t make the debut and maybe never will be fully recorded, as perhaps the group tried them and realised others were stronger.
As a band who stuck to simply being a live act for so long, taking their time to release anything, and saying yes to as many gigs as possible, the live experience of their songs is clearly something of utmost importance, and this choice of a comeback is more proof of it.
I remember hearing ‘This is the Killer Speaking’ live and on first listen of the recorded track, I was singing along to the chorus of “ah ah ahh, Here comes the killer!”—that’s how the band do it, that’s how they hook the people in.
But the choice of this song also feels like an arrow pointing in a good direction. After scaling success with their debut, the temptation to become more accessible and more radio-ready must loom. But ‘This is the Killer Speaking’ goes even further into theatrics. Like if Kate Bush wrote a theme tune for a western flick, it merges the group’s cinematic inspirations with a perfect balance of feminine and masculine soundscapes, letting Morris’ voice show off the full range, including some incredible high points, in a way that perfectly suits the lyrics too.
Singing of a dark and doomed love and a desire to reclaim the power, it’s likened to a hostage situation or a villain wandering back into town after she escapes and returns a savage, just as the band play it live, marching one by one back onto stage for an encore.
It’s a fun song, and it’s been a fun part of their set for so long now. In that way, it feels less like the band were bothered by the pressure of a second chapter after such a successful debut, and more about honouring the spirit of the live show that has always led the way.
