After appearing sporadically on several releases over the last few years, Kae Tempest has now announced their plans for a new studio album, arriving in the coming months.
The new full-length 'The Line Is A Curve' follows on from the 2019 LP 'The Book of Traps and Lessons', is being previewed by the new Kevin Abstract collaboration 'More Pressure', and is set to be released on the 8th April via Fiction Records. The release was also produced by Dan Carey, and features numerous guest additions including Fontaines DC's Grian Chatten, Lianne La Havas, ássia and Confucius MC.
Speaking about the new collection, Kae 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. 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. I was, at times, annoyed that in order to put the work out, I had to put myself out.
"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. I wanted to show my face and I dreamed of it being Wolfgang Tillmans who took the portrait."
Have a listen to 'More Pressure' ft. Kevin Abstract in the player and see the album's full tracklisting below.
'The Line Is A Curve' Tracklist:
Priority Boredom
I Saw Light (feat. Grian Chatten)
Nothing to Prove
No Prizes (feat. Lianne La Havas)
Salt Coast
Don't You Ever
These Are The Days
Smoking (feat. Confucius MC)
Water In The Rain (feat. ãssia)
Move
More Pressure (feat. Kevin Abstract)
Grace
