The Line Is A Curve - Kae Tempest: Review

Kae Tempest

is a British poet and spoken word singer who has been releasing albums for almost a decade now. Their debut album Everybody Down in 2014 was a massive critical success and since then they've expanded into writing across numerous mediums and in 2020 came out as nonbinary. 

Review By Lav:

While I've never been a Kae Tempest super fan I've always been aware of their music and stop in every few years to check out the new albums, which usually have some highlights to be found. This time around I was more interested than usual for a few reasons. Early on in the cycle Kae showed off a huge change in look and era aesthetic that seemed to serve an entirely new artistic vision for themselves. What had me even more excited was how much I liked the crop of singles which came out one after another with interesting features that lived up to my hopes. 

Lets cover those first, three of the four tracks released before the record are great. More Pressure might be the catchiest Kae Tempest song I've ever heard and that's the reason I've listened to it about a million times. The lyricism is great but more than anything it's that every single flow and refrain from both Kae and Kevin Abstract is completely irresistible. No Prizes came next and deploys a stark drum clattering that I find totally infectious and also has a great hook from Lianne La Havas. It's also a lyrical highlight that seems more like a character portrait of somebody that Kae is observing than anything confessional about themselves. Regardless it's one of the records dreariest moments but I thoroughly enjoy it.

I Saw Light sees Kae going toe to toe with Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. and it's an impressive combo. Even though they both have very distinct voices the trade off between the two is impressively smooth. The quiet but omnipresent instrumental and vivid lyricism are icing on the cake of their great performances. Part of that atmosphere transitions into the next track on the record Nothing To Prove which is hard to ignore with both the rapid fire delivery of the verse and the short loop of synths that come together to make an oppressive sound. Kae's confidence here is just so impressive and it absolutely sells a great hook. 

One of the overwhelming themes on the record is genuine optimism. Kae sounds like they're in a good place and while it's all very contemplative there is an essence of things moving in the right directions. Occasionally that comes in the form of tracks unlike anything I've ever heard from Kae before. These Are The Days almost mirrors the lyrical content of one of those "look me, we made it" kind of hip hop songs. It also has much more of an instrumental build than some other tracks here and it makes the second half of the song extremely high impact. It feels like positivity being manifested at gun point to make sure that you enjoy the prosperous times in your life. Move kicks off with a very dancey instrumental which I suppose feels appropriate. It's a directly confrontational track that genuinely gets my blood pumping. Kae emerges battle scared but triumphant and ready to get right back into the fight. This song kicks ass there's no way around it.

Sometimes the records optimism is more nuanced, for example there's Don't You Ever. The song has a great dichotomy between the rough edges of Kae's poetry and the sweet sampled hook. The instrumental also has some life to it that adds another level of depth to the song. Water In The Rain is probably the dreariest song on the record but it sees Kae sounding genuinely awestruck by someone. The analogy of carrying a bowl full of water through the rain perfectly represents the struggle of wanting to live up to somebody's expectations. 

The opening track Priority Boredom and the closing track Grace are both fine but don't quite live up to their places on the album. The opener is a bombastic start with a cascading synth line that's louder than almost anything else here. Closing track Grace is the opposite as an acoustic guitar finale. It's another interesting dichotomy because the song is one of the most purely passionate and utterly lovesick on the entire album. I actually wish the instrumental has a bit more of a kick to it because the lyrics and the moment on the record feel like they deserves something more triumphant. 

The one single I wasn't crazy about was Salt Coast, the longest song on the entire album. When it first came out I read something that mentioned how different it was for Kae to be dealing in imagery of a beach rather than the dreariness of the inner city and I haven't been able to stop thinking about while I listen to it. My major problem with the song is the choice of instrumental which doesn't really seem to fit the thematic imagery of the song at all and starts to get incredibly boring as the song approaches 6 minutes. Smoking is another song I have questions about because it's almost like two sort of interesting concepts for songs mashed together in a way that doesn't make any sense. The first half sees Kae singing with a layer of vocal distortion and lo-fi synths like some kind of Radio Dept. song. But the second half ditches the vocal layers and brings in a clunk kick drum beat for a Confucius MC verse. The transition between the two is awkward even if they do a great job independently.

The Line Is A Curve is the most I've been interested in a Kae Tempest project since their debut. While the instrumentals can be a bit of a mixed bag what ties all these songs together is Kae's unmistakable vocal talent and a flare for genuine positivity manifested in so many different ways. It's an enjoyable record packed full of talent that may be a bit of a challenge for unfamiliar listeners at first, but there is a warm core here that should pull almost anybody in. 7/10

Album Cover Review by Tyler Judson:

This cover is strange and I'm not at all drawn to it. Upon first glance it just looks messy and something you wouldn't expect to be the opening image you see when consuming a body of work. If you told me this was a still from the latest Jackass movie I would absolutely believe you. The intentional blur combined with the off level composition just throws is all off for me. It also has lettering that isn't strong enough to be seen clearly and lacks any a striking color grading. I'm not really into this cover. 2/10

For more unique songwriting check out my review of the new Destroyer album Labyrinthitis here