Last September, Leeds-based four-piece Wild Beasts announced their amicable split. Recorded last summer at RAK Studios in London and released the weekend of their farewell gig, this final album is the second on Domino’s live-in-the-studio Documents imprint (the first was Julia Holter’s In the Same Room). For the most part, the versions here are refinements of the originals rather than wholesale overhauls. This Is Our Lot still owes a debt to the Cure’s Lullaby; A Simple Beautiful Truth continues to benefit from its economy. The exception is The Devil’s Palace, which seamlessly splices together The Devil’s Crayon and Palace.
However, while this collection gives a good oversight of a consistently interesting career, it’s telling that the songs that leap out here – All the King’s Men from 2009’s Two Dancers ; an incredibly potent Wanderlust from 2014’s Present Tense – are their older ones. Given that, it’s unfortunate that Last Night… draws rather so heavily on material from 2016’s Boy King, the first Wild Beasts album on which memorable moments were in short supply. It all adds up to a slightly anticlimactic exit for a great band.
