Falling somewhere between
John Cooper Clarke
and
Scroobius Pip
, or
the Streets
Samuel Beckett
, London's
Kae Tempest
is a poet/rapper, and the real deal on both sides of that slash.
Everybody Down
, their debut album for the
Big Dada
label, could be considered performance poetry -- just like their piece
Brand New Ancients
, which was performed with orchestral backing at London's Battersea Arts Centre and won the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry that same year -- but the music from
Dan Carey
is beat-driven, street stuff, plus if the urban characters who wind in and out of this story aren't wearing hoodies and sneakers, it must be because they're taking their weekly bath. That's the problem with the aptly titled
, as this concept LP deals with three characters who are so lonely, they've become spiteful, sullen, snide, and self-destructive while only speaking of hope as something encountered in dreams. It's a drab palette with the only wash of color being how skillfully
Tempest
paints the picture. Besides, it's easy to slide into unattractiveness when your ex-convict uncle comes around and gives a look that says not "I love you" but "This is business and you should go" ("To the Victor the Spoils"), and while
had its share of phoenixes, this one is all about the ashes. Even if
is all thrills, pills, and bellyaches, and mostly the last,
is only 27 and already dealing in pop music as high art. Forgive them for not raging against the darkness, and then delight in how they sing the fallen and forgotten's song so well. ~ David Jeffries