Back in 2014 Kate Tempest’s Everybody Down found itself at number 4 on my end of year list and in 2016 her new record Let Them Eat Chaos is at number 6. “A complete album - individual tracks sound weaker when listened to on their own. It’s only when you fit the whole thing together and listen to it from start to finish in one go that you feel its density and everything falls into place. Like all the best stories it’s also one that needs far more than one listen to get everything out of it, probably why we've played it so much since we first heard it. That's why it's no.4 in our list of most played records of 2014,” is how I described Everybody Down and this description also fits to Let Them Eat Chaos.
As you’d expect with Kate Tempest her very visual wordplay takes centre ground. On Let Them Eat Chaos she brings a cast of characters together to form something that is bigger than the individual and as a result makes something rather special and thought provoking. Using a backdrop of a London street at 4.18 in the morning she delves into the twilight, the alienation, the despair and the hopelessness of people and projects it all onto a bigger canvas of global turmoil, before delivering a powerful call to action ending. That’s not to say that the music here also doesn’t have a place – it does – with Dan Carey returning to the fold again to deliver a varied blend of computerisations, but ultimately this music is designed as a backing to Kate’s words; that’s what you really need to soak up. A compelling and vital piece of work.
Kate Tempest - Let Them Eat Chaos (Album Trailer)
Kate Tempest - Lionmouth Door Knocker
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