In dit nieuwe jaar wordt de Line tussen spoken word en rap wederom bewaakt door Kae Tempest, een Line die Kae tot een Curve gebogen heeft. Na een succesvol toneelstuk en non-fictie boek komt nieuwe muziek, zo blijkt hun unieke arbeidsethos. Waar bij hun vorige albums het werk centraal moest staan, gaat het nu om Kae zelf. Hun angsten en zorgen, maar ook hun gezicht, verwelkomen de luisteraar in hun brein. Dat brein zit vol met Pulitzerprijs waardige woordkunst, prachtige ambiences en een ambitie om wat aan de wereld te veranderen. De rust die hun vorige albums kenmerkte is ingeruild voor urgentie; hardere woorden, hardere drums, en voorheen ondenkbare gastrollen voor Lianne La Havas en Kevin Abstract. Een artiest die zich zo vaak kan vernieuwen, binnen tien jaar tijd, is ongekend. Eigenlijk zijn er maar twee dingen zeker als Kae Tempest fan: je wordt continu verrast en continu overweldigd, door werk van geweldige kwaliteit.
Door Jesse Frelink - Mania
The Line Is A Curve is about letting go. The core of the record is
that the pressures we face do not always have to be heavy burdens, but
can be reframed; the more pressure a person is under, the greater the
possibility for release.
The album plays like a chronicle of pressures – the mind-numbing pursuit
of a comfortable life, the eternal striving for more, the pressures of
the city, the country, the times. The pressures of maintaining
relationships, of battling illness, addiction, poor mental health, the
vacuous life of our online selves. As we move through these chronicles
though, the mood brightens. The musicality becomes more expansive as the
lyrical horizon broadens and we glimpse coastlines, high streets, scrap
yards, train stations in the rain; the entire album begins to let go.
We encounter the contributions of artists who I love and admire, guest
vocalists and instrumentalists, and so we defeat the sense of isolation
felt in the opening track with a sense of deeply connected community.
More Pressure, the penultimate song, is the essence of the whole album
and the epiphany that leads to Grace, which is a prayer, a surrendering;
‘Please move me, please move through me, please unscrew me, please
loosen me up.’ But once we get to the end of Grace, and the album, we
loop back to the start – to ‘Kiss off the day with a mute mouth. Pass
the commute like I can die faster than you.’ Because no matter how much a
person grapples with, realises, deeply understands, about life and
their place in it, we still wake up in the morning back to square one.
Life isn’t solved the minute you figure something out about it. It’s a
daily operation to increase your resilience, cultivate a deeper
acceptance, let go of what’s chasing you and lean in to the pressures.
It’s cyclical, as I believe all things are. And instead of trying to
fight the cycles, this album asks us to surrender to them. To let go.
These general themes, of acceptance, resilience, surrender are also
about where I’m at in my personal life, in my journey towards a greater
acceptance of myself as an artist and as a human being. Being more
honest with the world and my community about who I am and letting go of
some heavy heavy shame, which is a glorious thing.
This album has a beautiful heart, there is so much love running through it and I can’t wait for people to experience it.