Music
[Album Review] Morning Parade ‘Morning Parade’
Review by Chris Lockett: Starting with Coldplay in the early 2000s, the music industry has seen a huge return to prominence for European Alternative Pop-Rock bands. Tons of new bands are cashing in on this particular trend of music and making subpar records that only seem to appeal to diehard fans of the genre. However, there is a new group that’s been making waves, being given the title of “England’s hottest new band” by the Huffington Post. The band, Morning Parade, has been receiving a lot of attention overseas, as well as here in the States, for their self-titled debut. But, has all of the hype been for naught, or is this a band that’s worth its weight in publicity gold? Hit the jump to find out!
The band’s debut, self-titled album kicks off with “Blue Winter”, an upbeat track that, as its name so ironically implies, gives off the feeling of a very snowy, cold winter. This song sets the stage for the rest of the album in terms of theme, as the whole album contains a very cold wintery feel. It’s not some highly original soundscape (especially in this particular genre), however the band is able to pull it off and make it sound a whole lot more natural than almost any other band that I’ve heard. The reason? Synths. It all comes down to how a band like this uses synths. See, whereas most bands within this genre tend to rely heavily on synthesizers, (laying them on thickly in order to mask the fact that they don’t actually have a whole lot of instrumental talent), Morning Parade likes to use a lot of background synths, putting lead singer Steve Sparrow’s vocals, as well as the band’s instruments at the forefront. It’s a super risky move to make, but it works exceptionally well here and really speaks volumes as to how talented this band actually is.
Aside from album opener “Blue Winter”, there are a number of other songs that show off the band’s talents. The album’s third track, (and my personal favorite), “Carousel” goes from being calm and mellow during the verses, to soaring and epic during the chorus within seconds. The track is very guitar driven, as is another standout track, “Under The Stars”, which manages to combine upbeat, fast-paced guitars with Sparrow’s calming vocals without sounding like it’s contradicting itself.
Other album highlights include the slow-burning “Running Down The Aisle”, which features some beautiful synths, and contains one hell of a guitar solo towards the end. Also of note, is the catchy, U2-esque track “Close To Your Heart”, the echoing guitar work of which is reminiscent to The Edge’s work on U2’s “New Years Day”.
Lyrically, the album is a poetic one. Lines like “Wasting time, just hanging around/ Skimming stones/ I’m casting an eye to see the mystery/ of where the ripples flow” from “Blue Winter” or “Twenty seconds on the backlog, overtime/Twenty seconds ‘til we’re swept by the tide/We’re treading water in the dead of night/And we’re speechless, just speechless” from “Speechless”, are perfect examples of the beautiful, atmospheric nature of Steve Sparrow’s lyrics, and how they intertwine seamlessly with the band’s sound.
Now, although this album has a lot going for it, there are a few shortcomings that prevent it from being a complete homerun. For one, there are quite a few filler tracks. Songs like “Us & Ourselves”, “Half Litre Bottle”, “Monday Morning”, and “Born Alone” sound like lesser versions of other, much better songs on the album, and only serve to draw out the listening experience. Luckily, these songs are rarely back to back, meaning that you can have hope that the next track will probably be better. Also of note, is the fact that Morning Parade isn’t doing something that hasn’t been done before. There are quite a few bands out there that sound very similar in a multitude of ways, and there will undoubtedly be comparisons to U2, Phoenix, “A Rush of Blood to the Head” era Coldplay, as well as a multitude of other bands.
The Bottom Line: While not being anything incredible or overly unique, Morning Parade has crafted a very good debut album that, while containing a few too many filler tracks for my liking, also has some excellent tracks that manage to blow the band’s contemporaries out of the water. They have proven themselves to be a band that has no qualms about wearing their influences on their sleeves, and that’s fine for an up and coming band. However, I am hopeful/excited to see if the band is able to evolve into a sound that is completely their own.
Multi-award-winning and unapologetically cinematic UK band The Last Dinner Party have always seemed drawn to the places where opposites collide. Beauty and violence. Grief and ecstasy. The sacred and the grotesque. It’s there in their music, performances, and in the worlds they’ve built around themselves since the band’s earliest days.
Their songs often feel less like traditional rock music and more like myths in motion, unfolding somewhere between a dream, a film, and a fevered memory. Perhaps that’s why horror feels so naturally at home within their creative universe.
For Abigail Morris, the group’s charismatic ringleader, some of horror’s most enduring filmmakers understand that terror becomes more powerful when it exists alongside beauty.
Discussing the work of Dario Argento, she points to films like Suspiria and Phenomena as perfect examples of that tension.
“I think it’s actually the proximity of those things rather than the distance,” Morris explains. “The things that are really beautiful and the things that are really terrifying. It’s like the idea of the sublime. The closer that beauty is to terror, the more beautiful it is and the more terrifying it is rather than the juxtaposition. I think that that’s where the sweet spot of fear and tension and intrigue and pure and real beauty is, where it’s almost the other. And I think that’s what Argento does really well with the sort of the beautiful casting and the sets and the lighting and then the buckets of red blood.”
She cites Argento’s ability to place stunning imagery directly beside the grotesque or unsettling. The vivid colors, dreamlike sets, and beautiful performers suddenly interrupted by buckets of blood, swarms of insects, or moments of genuine nightmare.
“I love how he plays with that,” she says.
That fascination with contradiction extends far beyond horror films. The Last Dinner Party’s work frequently occupies a similar emotional space, where longing can feel catastrophic, and heartbreak transforms into mythology. Morris brings up one of her favorites, Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession (1981), as another example of horror expressing emotional truths more accurately than realism ever could.
“A divorce is a very human thing that happens,” she says. “And then to turn that into this psychological body, spiritual, eldritch horror is how it must feel to go through a divorce. And it’s more accurate.”
Not surprisingly, news of the upcoming Possession remake sparked a passionate response. “I’m fucking furious,” Morris laughs. While generally skeptical of remakes, she makes an exception for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, praising the filmmaker for creating something entirely his own rather than attempting to recreate Argento’s original.
“He wasn’t trying to capture the energy of Argento’s film. It felt like a story in its own right.” She goes on to explain, “…if they do that with Possession, then I’m interested.”
The conversation also reveals just how deeply cinema has been embedded into The Last Dinner Party from the very beginning. Long before sold-out shows and award nominations, the band envisioned themselves not simply as musicians but as architects of an entire world.
“When we started the band, the visuals were of equal importance to the music,” Morris says. “Before we played a show, before we shot a music video, we decided that what we wanted this band to be was something that was a complete world.”
That commitment led to elaborate mood boards, film references, styling concepts, and even a 72-page presentation that helped define the band’s visual identity before many people had ever heard a note of their music.
For composer, songwriter, and keyboardist Aurora Nishevci, many of those same cinematic instincts have begun finding new outlets. She speaks passionately about the horror scores that continue to inspire her, including the work of Mica Levi and Hildur Guðnadóttir. Rather than relying solely on traditional horror techniques, she is fascinated by artists willing to challenge expectations.
“You can decide to go the traditional route,” Nishevci says. “Or you can completely go another way and still be terrifying.”
That fascination has now become something more personal. Nishevci reveals that she is currently working on her first horror feature as a composer, bringing her own musical language into the genre that has influenced her for years.
The band’s connection to horror has also found an unexpected audience among fans of Yellowjackets. Online, edits pairing The Last Dinner Party’s music with scenes from the series have become increasingly common. At concerts, fans have even begun holding up photos of Jackie during performances of “Woman Is a Tree.”
At first, Morris couldn’t understand what she was seeing.
“I thought it was someone’s grandma,” she says. Only later did she realize the mysterious photographs were actually tributes to one of the show’s most beloved characters. “It’s fucking Jackie from Yellowjackets!”
The band enthusiastically express interest in seeing those worlds collide one day.
While The Last Dinner Party’s future remains unwritten, horror seems destined to remain part of it. Asked what creative paths still excite them, Morris immediately begins dreaming beyond albums and tours.
“We’ll do a horror movie as well.”
Nishevci quickly adds another possibility that has apparently been living on the band’s mood board for some time. “We keep talking about doing a folk horror EP.” “That’s been on the mood board,” Morris confirms.
For a band already obsessed with mythology, ritual, transformation, storytelling, beauty, and terror, both ideas feel less like surprises and more like inevitable next chapters. For much more with Abigail Morris and Aurora Nishevci, including further musings on Argento, Possession, Salò, Hausu, and the future of The Last Dinner Party, check out The Boo Crew Podcast Episode 473 available now on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.
The band joins Olivia Rodrigo on the road next year for multiple sold-out residencies in New York and LA. Follow the Last Dinner Party on Instagram.
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