UK-based playwright, musician, and artist, Kate Tempest, consistently tells each of her stories with conviction. On her latest album, Let Them Eat Chaos, Tempest narrates her world using characters that share the same setting as the real world in order to illustrate issues of society, and their roles in our everyday lives.
Let Them Eat Chaos starts with “Picture a Vacuum.” The songstress asks us to picture our world from afar. She marvels in the magnificence of the world we live in, asking us to recall it from a distance in all of space. She speaks about the Earth and the sun like old friends, with her voice full of love and comfort. She breaks from her reverie to ask of our Earth, “Now, is that a smile that plays across her lips, or is it a tremor of dread?” Tempest brings us in, utilizing a dark synth to break the comforting glow. We are on the Earth’s surface now. We are with our fellow man, and we are in London. Kate Tempest asks, “What am I to make, of all this?” And thus begins her tale.
As Let Them Eat Chaos progresses, Tempest utilizes her poetic, almost spoken-word style of synth to tell a story. Tempest’s album centers around seven strangers up at 4:18 a.m.; it’s not the morning, and it’s not nighttime. She tells us about the burdens they carry, many of which relate to societal issues and our own weaknesses. She doesn’t explicitly ask us to relate to her characters, but with the way she tells their stories in such detail, it’s impossible not to put ourselves in their place, and impossible to not see them reflected back within ourselves.
We were lucky enough to have co-performer for Tempest’s show, SassyBlack, stop by our studio earlier on this year. You can check out our recent write-up about the psychedelic singer to get a little background on her ever-growing success story. This is sure to be a heavy and healing show, as SassyBlack paired with Kate Tempest will challenge you to reach into the deepest corners of what it means to be human in this messed up world of ours, and to acknowledge our insecurities in the form of story and song.
Kate Tempest will be playing at The Neptune on Monday, March 27th with local artist SassyBlack. The show starts at 9:00 p.m., with doors opening one hour prior. Tickets can still be purchased here.
JULIA OLSON | Coooooool | KXSU Head Reporter