"Nothing Matters" is the highly anticipated debut single by The Last Dinner Party released April 19, 2023 through Island Records, and the lead single from their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy. It serves as the eleventh track from the album.
On the 14th of June 2023, the band announced on their socials that a limited edition 7" vinyl would be released, with the B-side being the orchestral prelude "Prelude to Ecstasy".[1]
On the 3rd of October 2024, The Sims 4 released a trailer for their "Life & Death Expansion Pack" featuring a rendition of the song recorded by the band in Simlish.
Background[]
The band would test out their material in pubs and small venues around London where they gained a fan base, they started to build a reputation in the london live circuit and had a bit of a buzz around their first release.[2]
- “This wasn’t a dress rehearsal. You only get one debut.”
- ―Abigail Morris in an interview with Billboard.[2]
The band signed with Island Records after being discovered for a video posted by Lou Smith in 2022, and they immediately started to work on recording their songs after being introduced to the producer James Ford. After two years of honing their identity on the live circuit, with a team in place, the band prepared to officially launch their recording career,[2] teasing that something is coming at the beginning of 2023.[3]
- “I’m kind of going to miss our era of being like, ‘Yeah, we don’t have any songs.’ It’s kind of a flex to be like, ‘We’ve got nothing out, come to the show’. We’ve worked so hard on the songs and the recording of the songs, and everything. The build up has been immense. So yeah, it will be a relief to get out there, and show our families!”
- ―Georgia Davies in an interview with NME following the release of their debut single.[4]
The song was written by Abigail Morris in 2021 about her then-boyfriend on a piano he had in his bedroom. She sat down and started to play on it while he wasn’t there and felt the need to write the truest love song that she could, capturing that euphoria of being in love, and also that sense of unbridled, untamed love that’s also a little perverse. This was a rare departure for Abigail, who typically writes heartbreak anthems as they're "easier and more dramatic." But, she told Billboard with a laugh, "I was with my boyfriend at the time, and I was very happy."[5]
Nothing Matters was not intended to be the bands debut single at first, instead they had talked about their first single being Burn Alive.[6]
- “We had no idea that it was going to do what it did. We were like, ‘OK, let’s introduce ourselves,’ and then where it went is kind of beyond comprehension.”
- ―Abigail Morris for Apple Music
Lizzie Mayland further explained:
- “I was really freaked out—I spent the first couple of days just in my bed—but also so grateful for all the joy it’s been received with. When we played our first show after it came out, I literally had the phrase, ‘This is the best feeling in the world.’ I’ll never forget that.”
- ―Lizzie Mayland for Apple Music
Composition[]
The song started out as a slow piano ballad but became itself once it was in the hands of the band, with the bandmates "throwing everything at" the simple piano ballad in the studio, adding guitar solos, horn sections, and experimented with vocal textures, transforming the track into a baroque art-rock anthem.[2]
- “It was originally just a piano-and-voice song that I wrote in my room, and then it evolved as everyone else added their parts. Songs evolve by us playing them on stage and working things out. That’s definitely what happened with this song—especially Emily’s guitar solo. It’s a very honest love song that we wanted to tell cinematically and unbridled, that expression of love without embarrassment or shame or fear, told through a lens of a very visual language—which is the most honest way that I could have written.”
- ―Abigail Morris and Lizzie Mayland for Apple Music
The song is mostly inspired by cinema and how they make you feel rather than bands, with the band likening the song to Nick Cage's film "Wild At Heart".
- “It’s got that energy of a runaway horse in a desert”
- ―Abigail Morris in an interview with DORK.[7]
In the beginning, the guitar solo by Emily Roberts was more classic rock-inspired, but after a producer put a bunch of glitch stuff over it Emily realised it might not be good enough and decided to change it while away for Christmas to the current one which Abigail calls "fucking iconic” and “definitely one of the best live moments of the show".
- “I realised that might be a sign that it wasn’t good enough. I knew what I didn’t want to do. By eliminating those things, I found the thing I did want to do.”
- ―Emily Roberts in an interview with DORK.[7]
Lyrics[]
Music video[]
The music video, directed by Saorla Houston and the band, was released on the same day as the single and is a cinematic video that opens with a shot of Victorian era-inspired funeral before the drama unfolds. The video pays homage to the Lisbon sisters from Sofia Coppola’s 1999 film The Virgin Suicides.
Behind The Scenes[]
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Critical reception[]
Both critics and fans were united in declaring it song of the year. Alyshea Wharton of Dazed called the song "a seductively crude and unashamedly vulnerable love song",[8] and Michael O'Connor Marotta of Vanyaland believed it is likely the song would be added in best-of-decades lists in 2030 with it's "stunning piece of theatrical indie art-rock and decadent elegance", comparing the song to Kate Bush, Suede, Sinead O’Connor, and Feist.[9] The song was also described as "art-rock bombast" by Rolling Stone UK.[10]
Chart performance[]
The song entered Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay chart at #39. It later climbed into the Top 10, becoming a significant radio hit.
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- While figuring out how to replace the "fuck" in the chorus of the song, Courtney Love handed them an empty box of painkillers with lyric suggestions written on it after she overheard them backstage at a festival.[11]
- They didn’t use any of them but Abigail has the box framed.
Credits[]
The Last Dinner Party[]
- Abigail Morris - Vocals
- Georgia Davies - Bass, Additional Vocals
- Emily Roberts - Lead Guitar, Additional Vocals
- Aurora Nishevci - Scored and Conducted, Synthesizer, Piano, Organ, Additional Vocals
- Lizzie Mayland - Guitar, Additional Vocals
Additional personnel[]
- James Ford - Production, Drums
- Jimmy Robertson - Engineer
- Serafina Steer - Harp
- Lucy Humphris - Trumpet
- Bradley Jones - Trumpet
- Robyn Blair - French Horn
- Alistar Goodwin - Bass Trombone
- Alan Moulder - Mixed
- Chris Gehringer - Mastering
References[]
- ↑ https://x.com/lastdinnerparty/status/1667165392991662082?s=46&t=TGML588DkXBbqj7ms0CMpQ
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 https://www.billboard.com/music/features/the-last-dinner-party-nothing-matters-interview-september-2023-chartbreaker-1235415311/#!
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CqqZlWpNdLI/?igshid=ZWI2YzEzYmMxYg==
- ↑ https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/the-last-dinner-party-band-debut-single-nothing-matters-interview-radar-3429553
- ↑ https://www.billboard.com/music/features/the-last-dinner-party-nothing-matters-interview-september-2023-chartbreaker-1235415311/#!
- ↑
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 https://readdork.com/features/the-last-dinner-party-hype-cover-april-2023/
- ↑ https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/59755/1/the-last-dinner-party-nothing-matters-interview
- ↑ https://vanyaland.com/2023/05/22/the-last-dinner-party-serve-a-decadent-elegance-on-nothing-matters/
- ↑ https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/features/the-last-dinner-party-we-like-to-go-between-the-grotesque-and-the-beautiful-30706/
- ↑ https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/the-last-dinner-party-london-band-glastonbury-debut-2023-b1089155.html
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Tracklist
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Acoustics and Covers
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Other Eras
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| Prelude to Ecstasy ❦ Second studio album | |||||
Live
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Extras
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| Poems | Heather | ||||
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| Scrapped songs | Godzilla | ||||
| Other | In Store Signings ❦ Short Film | ||||
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