Neale, Matthew (16 November 2019). "Exclusive: New letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn signed by Roger Waters, Robert Del Naja and more". NME . Retrieved 27 November 2019. Tempest is about to go on tour in the UK over April and May and is coming to Sheffield’s Octagon Centre on the 15th May 2022. The Line Is a Curve is the latest album from poet and rapper Kae Tempest, an artist who's been doing great work ever since they first came to prominence. I've constantly been a fan of their poetic writing style, something which is further developed on The Line Is a Curve.

It’s kind of setting myself free from some stuff that I’ve been suffering from with poor mental health. I think sometimes singing about it, just describing it and going into the experience of it, can take some of the fear out of what you experience when you’re experiencing it in isolation. It’s a profound moment on the album for me.” Facebook TV Commercial, 'We're Never Lost If We Can Find Each Other' Song by Kate Tempest". iSpot.tv . Retrieved 9 April 2020. Aside from Kevin Abstract, ‘The Line Is A Curve’ includes numerous guest spots from the likes of Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C., Lianne La Havas, ássia and Confucius MC. Tempest also teams up with longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who takes on production duties once again. The lyricism is excellent like one would expect from a poetry. Dealing with Tempest's personal hardships ranging from depression to dysphoria. Each song, each line in this album has a pointed meaning and for the most part is excellent at connecting these meanings line to line.

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In September 2013, their play Hopelessly Devoted was produced by Paines Plough and premiered at Birmingham Rep Theatre. [20] After the experience of touring previous album ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’, Tempest realised that they wanted ‘The Line Is A Curve’ to be a communicative record. The concept manifested itself both in the contributions of other artists (the aforementioned Kevin Abstract, Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC, Lianne La Havas, ássia, Confucius MC) and during the recording process, when Tempest decided to do three vocal takes in one day, to three different generations of people; “ a man of 78 who I’d never met, a woman of 29, the poet Bridget Minamore, who is a good friend of mine and then to three young fans of 12, 15 and 16 who had responded to a social media post.” For the last couple of records,” they say, “I wanted to disappear completely from the front-facing aspects of the industry.” There was a genuine desire to let the work speak for itself; constantly grappling with the fact that as a writer their output was enough, yet putting out music meant being public-facing. “But this time, I want to be different.”

As the album progresses, moods change but Tempest remains resolute, rarely deviating from their metronomic delivery. Repeated listens reveal nuances that hint at further emotional resonance but if you’re not a fan of spoken word poetry you’re unlikely to change your mind here. a b "Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2017 sponsored by National Book Tokens". National Book Tokens . Retrieved 6 February 2018. a b Kakutani, Michiko (18 March 2015). "Review – Kate Tempest, a Young Poet Conjuring Ancient Gods – The New York Times". The New York Times . Retrieved 6 February 2018.They take a minute. Sharing stories from their past, Tempest explains, isn’t easy. “Until hitting puberty, I lived as a boy,” they say. “People around me would say: ‘You’re a tomboy, you’ll grow out of it.’ I internalised that, and hoped I would.” That never happened. “Puberty was disorientating. It brought a lot of pain to me.” I think of the album as a series of suites. You start with ‘Smoking’ and all of the themes that come up in that and then you move into ‘Water in the Rain,’ which is this unleashing of deep emotion, which then opens up the space for us to get to ‘Move.’ ‘Move’ is a response to what’s come before. I’ve connected with the tenderness, so now I can really dig deep and find my strength. This is the time to get up off the floor and stand up for yourself. The idea of ‘Move’ is that you earn that strength by being that vulnerable. It’s a fight song. I might be losing right now, but I’m not going to give up.” Kae Tempest [3] [4] (formerly Kate Tempest) [5] [6] is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright. Music wasn’t just an escape for Tempest, it also shifted people’s attention away from their body. “When I had rapping and lyricism,” says Tempest, “ that’s what I was. Everything else disappeared. I almost left my body behind, and became an artist.”

Geraghty, Hollie (20 January 2023). "Fraser T Smith shares new single 'We Were We Still Are' with Kae Tempest". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 20 January 2023 . Retrieved 21 January 2023.Overall I thoroughly enjoyed listening to The Line Is A Curve which is just as thought provoking as Tempest’s other works but feels more matured and observant than some of their earlier albums. It’s close-up portraits of three characters and Lianne’s voice is the overarching theme or the undercurrent of what is common with all of them. The same thing that is occurring for them all, and all of us, in this world where we’ve set the album—where the dominant mythology says, ‘I’ve just got to keep climbing, and I don’t know why.’ I’ve known Lianne for a long time, and I love her voice passionately. There’s mutual respect and friendship there, and it just felt like the right time to try and bring some of that energy through into the record.” It’s a statement song. It’s powerful in its musicality. I love the beat. The first and the second verses are absolutely phonetically matched. There is communication going on between the transformations in the lyric as it begins in one way, and then as it transforms in the other way, so you have this kind of call-and-response between two verses. For me as a writer, a rhymer and a lyricist, to be doing that on a record is an embodiment of having nothing to prove. It’s like, ‘Here, look what this song is doing.’ It’s like this chorus, musicality, lyricism, flow that are all saying the same thing. There’s nothing to prove—it’s all to play for.” a b c Mahoney, Elisabeth (27 March 2012). "Wasted – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 6 February 2018. So how does The Line Is A Curvehold up? Does it manage to achieve what my A-Level English teacher claimed was impossible? Well, the short answer is no, but it comes close. Very close.