Kae Tempest "Self Titled" (2025)

 The weight of depressive expressions heavies with age, my appetite for hearing such struggles continually diminishing. Self Titled acts as a firm reminder of this personal trend, a brutally unfurled delve into this latest chapter of mental health and gender identity issues. Its tone plays a smothering suffocation, as burdensome lyricism and downtrodden beats unite to paint an artistic doom and gloom matching the pains of this spoken word, rhyme rap poet.

 

 Breaking from the drudgery, Sunshine On Catford acts like a fleeting peak of sun between dreary rain clouds. An inflection of warmth, still lingering on the melancholy of minor chords, tinged by 90s Dance piano melodies in its chorus. A strange sullen lover letter of sorts that finds a similar tonality again on Prayers To Whisper. Otherwise, Self Titled's instrumentals are casually dark, hardly adventurous but competent at assembling percussive grooves with flashes classy instrumentation.

 

Diagnoses stands apart as anthem for self inflicted mental health saturation. Along with another track, a theme of contrast upon these internal obsessions and the world at large emerges. A strange blame game of victim hood that feels confusing as to its purpose. Otherwise the record is pretty coherent, a walk through the current woes of a struggling artist. The expression is powerful but as already stated, this broody temperament has been hard for me to endure these days.

 

Rating: 6/10 

Kae Tempest "The Line Is A Curve" (2022)

 

Formerly known as Kate Tempest, Kae returns after the disappointing The Book Of Traps And Lessons, renewed and revitalized with that magic sparkle heard on earlier records. Always one to cut to the heart of social observations, The Line Is A Curve turns in a personal direction as a love story arcs from origins of pain and separation. Although Kae is often tied up in the observations of the characters manifesting from story telling, this time much of the lyrical feels deeply personal with vulnerability often heard in there voice. The record blossoms from a typically dystopian, dissatisfied, unsettled origin into a warm, endearing resolve found in the love of another soul.

Shadowy, softly glum with a nightly luminosity, the opening instrumentals navigate difficult terrain with terrain as Kae's lyrical journey starts from a depressive state. The mood begins to turn with Salt Coast, its opening gives me an eerie deja vu to Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues. It must be the same piano chord! With this song both Kae and the instrumental start turning to positive expressions and melodies as the relationship between ones self and the other starts to tangle. Slowly the threads are pulled one by one.

Along the way, These Are The Days land some Pink Floyd vibes with fantastic instrumentation. Mixing a live band with the synthetic melodies has a beautiful resonance. Its something the production achieves over and over, melding different musical elements at the greatest compliment to Kae's words. Things get a little manic with the last couple of songs but landing on the heart pouring Grace, the arc finds its conclusion. One that surely can't be fictions, its such a beautiful expression.

The Line Is A Curve plays with a true album experience, not a collection of songs but a journey cohesive in voice and instrumentation that one can chew on from some time as Kae's lyrics stir the deeper rumblings of thought and the accompanying music setting an apt complimentary tone. The whole thing feels like a hugely personal endeavor to shape the motions of ones life into a piece of art.

Rating: 7/10

Kate Tempest "The Book Of Traps And Lessons" (2019)

I was dead excited for this release, Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos made quite the impact. Kate's heavy and burdensome poetry paired with impoverished Hip Hop instrumentals made quite a unique potion of the classic formula. This time around there is a clear shift in tone, the limelight lands firmly on Kate as the pace and foundation of drum beats are far between one another. The subtlety of dark ambience pianos, strings and atmospheric keys softly shade the space around her words.

It plays like a poetry piece mustering winds of momentum as the instruments occasionally pick up the musky tone and carry it along. Kate is otherwise quite the smothering ache of your attention. The bleak and quiet despair of mundane existence grasps her words as details of failed relationships, social pressure and societal observations manifest into spiraling thought worms. Occasional flickers of wisdom, conclusion or relief linger but the majority of this record is quite a weight on the listener.

The tenderness and vulnerability captured in her voice seals the authenticity of this expression. Wordplay, narrative and innuendo interweave as trains of consciousness collide with thawed out thoughts, articulated to an exhibit. Its undoubtedly deep and comes in waves of topics, feeling like a linear narrative that seems to fly all over the place. There is much to chew through here however its not quite for me.

The problem I have with this record is how doom and gloom the tone is. Both introspection and outwards reflection finds no light between the clouds. It becomes a downtrodden journey sucking away mood when the already quite instrumentals strip to a silence. Kate's words are inescapable in these moments and her words ring the alarms a degree to paranoid for my taste. These big topics tackled are done so with a bias for the depressing and despite a beauty in her language its path is one that brings you with it. The uplift and conclusion it ends with too feels in too much contrast to all that came before. Its an unsatisfying and forceful look into the shadows.

Favorite Track: Firesmoke

Rating: 5/10

Wardruna "Skald" (2018)

Having enjoyed the Nordic ambience and cultural folk of Runaljod, I brought this album without a first listen. Its a departure from what I remember as Skald trades off depth and indulgence for a grounded minimalism that far better represents what this may have one sounded like. Einar Selvik stands as a dominate presence, a lone ancestral voice to guide us through the echos of heritage and its accompanying instrumentation, of which there is little. Naked and bare, his language is sung with inflections and an honest rawness to invoke what may have been in centuries past.

Purely by impression, his performance resembles runic scriptures and handed down heathen hymns. The poetry of cultures lost to time. His lone voice holds strong as simple single stringed instrument melodies repeat to set the tone. Only on Vindavla do the instruments switch to bring a darker, tense tone as the Lute alike instrument mostly delivers soothing and warm music. One can envision Nordic ancestors sat around a campfire as they exchange stories and sing poetry together.

At its end the record dulls with a fifteen minute accapella. His isolated voice not as charming alone. On my first few listens I struggled to be sucked in to this world but with patience it grew a little. The fault is probably with my own preferences as a richer instrumentation would have lured me in and cultural hymns are often not to my liking through human voice alone. It is however a remarkable performance in the right mood, a soothing and spiritual listen that will evoke historical echos of our humanity.

Rating: 5/10

Kate Tempest "Let Them Eat Chaos" (2016)

Kate Tempest's debut record "Everybody Down" was a refreshing take on Hip Hop music, a blend of Rap, Spoken Word and poetry readings with character arcs that develop across the record as we follow a group of young adults and their struggles in day to day life. "Let Them Eat Chaos" is the follow up which repeats a similar formula, both lyrically and with a similar set of instrumentals, fortunately its for the better. With a refined approach Kate's overarching story shines brighter than before having a little more potency for social awareness and commentary, providing observations and food for thought which culminates with an "epiphany" on the records final track "Tunnel Vision" as the characters struggles related and transcend into global issues with world events and humanities direction facing crisis.

Revolving around seven separated characters from a block of flats, Kate investigates their lives and mindsets which have fallen into the common traps our urbanized society creates for individuals. In between observations Kate jumps into first person, giving us a direct train of thought from some of the characters shes follows. In sync with the instrumentals, Kate's tales drift between quirky, dystopian commentary and deeply moody, serious vibes as she introduces characters and their inner workings through monologue and dialog. It stirs an ever changing landscape as the album continually shifts gears as we drift from one person to the next. Kate creates a rather unbiased portrait of her imaginary characters, however the earnest in her tone creates quite the sympathetic air for her troubled people.

The instrumentals are very similar , "Grubby" even reuses some identical synth sounds. Despite similarity these beats are better built for purpose. Following Kate's direction they often have build up and a better sense of theme rather than jumping straight into the core loop. With this evolution the albums vision is strengthened and Its melodies and sounds within the instrumentals are easier to digest. I appreciated the odd ball nature of the previous effort but "Let Them Eat Chaos" tones down the oddities for a more thematic progression alongside Kate's moving tale following her seven souls. Listening back to her debut Its clear a big step forward.

Favorite Tracks: Ketamine For Breakfest, Pictures On A Screen, Tunnel Vision

Rating: 8/10

Tory Town Poets "TTP" (2014)

Along with Kate Tempest this is another gift I received for Christmas. Its a short 18 minute spoken word piece, performance poetry enhanced with a few lingering sound effects to help set a tone. Poets Olmo Lazarus and Sioni Richards present us with food for thought through word and rhyme as they express their disenfranchised situations. Through topics of war, work, money, youth and suburban disillusionment we muse on their thoughts. The duo have similar styles and tone, complimenting one another from track to track with their deeper, common voices, spoken as if talking directly to you. With a silky flow of organic rhymes and sturdy pacing their words suck one in to the clear and cohesive narratives laid down around the points expressed. You can sense the emotion and anger, its behind calm and calculated expressions but the weight of each point hits home heavy and as the pace of delivery whizzes by as a whirl of mental activity stirs inside on the many observations and points touched on. Its a very socially oriented piece, relative to the human experience, as opposed to any political alignment or ideology, however the groups name may give you a sense of where their politics fall. Its short, rammed with substance and an expression to tune into for a touch of sanity.

Favorite Track: C.V.

Rating: 6/10

Kate Tempest "Everybody Down" (2014)

This record was a gift I received at Christmas and that first, instantaneous impression was not flattering. Disjointed of-kilt beats droned underneath a monotone Londoner's voice talking the story of when Harry met Becky. Things u-turned quickly and within a couple of tracks the magic shone brightly through this brilliant sound like an epiphany. Unique, authentic and original within the context of what I've heard, Kate Tempest is an English poet, rapper from Brockley, London who has so brilliantly deconstructed the foundations of Hip Hop and rebuilt it poised between spoken word and poetry. Retaining the core elements of beats, rhymes and social commentary its spirit is in the same place yet it cannot help itself but come across as truly different.

Kate delivers her rhymes through a strongly spoken, casual tone accompanied by slightly sung lines for hooks or choruses and impersonating voices for the characters that crop up in her stories. A lot of the lines are rhymed but the casual spoken style lets them drift by as if they are unnecessary as we are locked into to the narrative Kate has us following with series of social stories. They link up through the course of the record, characters drift in and out of the songs before they all converge on the final track. These tales are told with a grit for reality and avoidance of glorification. Observational and blunt, Kate find room to inflect the emotional perspective between the events her characters go through as we follow them on their ark.

Behind her the soundtrack of suburban dystopia drones through moody, dinghy synths that glow like luminous lights through muffled aesthetics. The drums keep pace with unconventional beats that shuffle back and forth, paranoid, between sounds that resemble kicks, snares and cymbals. Off-kilt baselines wobble and groove under the two. It comes together without a big moment, phat groove or memorable melody, playing into a perfect subtlety that lets Kates stories stay in focus as these claustrophobic sounds and tempered beats build a grimy, paranoid atmosphere. The record has been a real experience, unique and original to my ears, defying expectation through a remarkable chemistry between beats and rhymes and a sharp, keen talent for engaging the listener.

Favorite Songs: Theme From Becky, Circles, Happy End

Rating: 8/10