Musician Kae Tempest shares taster from their fourth album
Lewisham writer and musician Kae Tempest pictured has shared the first taster from their fourth album, which is out in April.
The single More Pressure (feat. Kevin Abstract), taken from The Line is a Curve, features Tempest’s sharp, weaving lyrics over an uptempo beat.
The track features a verse by Kevin Abstract of the American hip-hop group BROCKHAMPTON.
The two connected after the group had reached out to Tempest to thank them for the inspiration they had gotten from their previous album The Book of Traps and Lessons.
Communication is a theme running through the whole album, due to be released on April 8, which Tempest realised they wanted after the experience of touring their last album.
The concept manifested itself both in the contributions of other artists, which included Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC, Lianne La Havas, ássia, Confucius MC, and during the recording process when Tempest decided record for three audiences from different generations.
They said: “The Line Is A Curve is about letting go. Of shame, anxiety, isolation and falling instead into surrender. Embracing the cyclical nature of time, growth, love.
“This letting go can hopefully be felt across the record. In the musicality, the instrumentation, the lyricism, the delivery, the cover art. In the way it ends where it begins and begins where it ends.”
The album artwork features a picture of Tempest shot by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.
Tempest said: “I knew I wanted my face on the sleeve. Throughout the duration of my creative life, I have been hungry for the spotlight and desperately uncomfortable in it.
“For the last couple of records I wanted to disappear completely from the album covers, the videos, the front-facing aspects of this industry.
“A lot of that was about my shame but I masked it behind a genuine desire for my work to speak for itself, without me up front, commodifying what felt so rare to me and sacred.”
Tempest said that at times they felt annoyed that in order to put the work out, they had to put themself out, adding: “But this time around, I understand it differently.
“I want people to feel welcomed into this record, by me, the person who made it, and I have let go of some of my airier concerns.
“I feel more grounded in what I’m trying to do, who I am as an artist and as a person and what I have to offer.
“I feel less shame in my body because I am not hiding from the world anymore.”