A record I’ve been listening to a lot over the last few days is Kate Tempest’s second solo album Let Them Eat Chaos. Whereas Kate’s debut solo album Everybody Down told a story revolving around a small number of inter connected characters, Let Them Eat Chaos takes a different approach. Starting with a view of the earth, Kate zooms in to London and one street at 4.18am where she shines a light on seven dissatisfied individuals who live there, awake at a time when most of us are asleep. She voices their fears, loneliness, isolation and worries but combines those thoughts with views on bigger picture politics; from housing to the environment to work. This album reminds me a tiny bit of John McGregor's book If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things in so far as the words take us behind closed doors into parts of people's lives that we wouldn't normally see, until one event brings the characters together.
Like her previous record, it’s not an easy listen; there’s almost too much to take in. But each journey through the album (I’m only 3 days in so far) gives more and more. Lyrical narcissism is so prominent in pop music these days that it's wonderfully refreshing to come across someone not only writing absorbing lyrics full of dexterity, but ones which aren't afraid to say something that bit more thoughtful about the world at large. Let Them Eat Chaos deserves your time.
Taken from that record is Ketamine for Breakfast, which apparently has an ‘impact date’ of December 9th. Don’t wait till then though. Let it impact on you now and introduce you to Jemma who lives in a flat “up the stairs, rickety,loaded with history,” and her thoughts of her past, present and revisiting that past.
Kate Tempest - Ketamine For Breakfast
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