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The Last Dinner Party unleash gritty new single ‘Big Dog’ and poem ‘Come All You Beasts’
The Last Dinner Party release gritty single 'Big Dog' and spoken-word 'Come All You Beasts', co-produced with Animesh Raval, ahead of a busy summer tour.
The Last Dinner Party have finally put a studio stamp on a live favourite: the band released the bruising new single ‘Big Dog’ alongside a spoken-word piece called ‘Come All You Beasts’.
It is the first new material from the former NME Cover Stars since last year’s highly anticipated sophomore album ‘From The Pyre’. ‘Big Dog’ is a song that long existed as a live ritual — the band have been slotting it into sets since before their debut, prefacing the performance by reciting a poem at each show — and only now have they answered fans’ calls to record and release it.
Co-produced by The Last Dinner Party with Animesh Raval, the single leans into a darker, more brooding register than some of the band’s flashier moments. Abigail Morris and co. strip the theatrics back enough to let an unsettling nervousness creep through; the result has been likened to the spare, intense mood of PJ Harvey while still feeling unmistakably theirs.
The companion piece ‘Come All You Beasts’ is not a throwaway intro but a deliberate framing device. Bassist Georgia Davies explains that the poem acts “a way to introduce the folkloric and storytelling elements of ‘From the Pyre’ to ‘Big Dog'”. She adds that “the themes of the song were interpolated with Bible verses, subverting prescriptive messages about women’s safety. We have always been inspired by poetry and performance in all forms, so spoken word with improvisational accompaniment felt like a natural extension of our art.”
There is a live sensibility to both releases: you can still hear the performative edge the band have honed onstage, that mix of drama and intimacy that made audiences demand a recorded version of this particular track.
Check out both below.
On the road
The Last Dinner Party are currently on a headline run in the US that runs until mid-June. After that they return to the UK for festival slots at Isle of Wight, TRNSMT, and Latitude. They are also set to support Wolf Alice at Finsbury Park and will make their first festival headline appearance at Wilderness.
Newly announced dates include gigs supporting Olivia Rodrigo on her ‘Unraveled Tour‘ — the band already supported Rodrigo at BST Hyde Park last summer — and opening for Sombr on his 14-date US run.
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‘Big Dog’ is the first standalone single the band have shared since ‘From The Pyre’, though they recently contributed a lovelorn, passionate track called ‘Let’s Do It Again!’ to the War Child ‘Help(2)’ charity album.
In its four-star review of ‘From The Pyre’, NME wrote: ‘From The Pyre arrives just under two years after The Last Dinner Party swirled onto the scene properly with their debut, but never feels as if it’s been hurried to capitalise on momentum. Instead, it’s an accomplished listen – still as deliciously dramatic as ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’, fleshing out their world more and more with daring, dashing songs of true depth.’
For fans who have watched ‘Big Dog’ grow from a live incantation into a recorded single, this release closes a circle while opening a new chapter — one that leans harder into folklore, spoken word and the unsettling textures that make The Last Dinner Party a band people want to see live.
