★★★★☆

No space for mincing words onLet Them Eat Chaos: this is one of the most potent, powerful LP releases of 2016.

For those unfamiliar with her work, Kate Tempest is a multi-awarded and much-lauded poet, playwright and spoken word artist hailing from South-East London. Her appearance on Q&A earlier this year was incredibly affecting viewing, and that same level of passion, frustration and emotion is articulated with aplomb throughout her new record.

We’ve arrived on a London street at 4:18am, where seven strangers are struggling to sleep. For the remainder of the album, almost every track commences with a spoken word intro, introducing one of these seven strangers. Familiar stories of grief, anxiety, loneliness, regret, relapse, concerns for the future and concerns for the state of the planet keep these people up at night.

As a storm rumbles in, the city is not painted as a sympathetic place. Millions of people live in close proximity, shunning the problems of the world and growing fat off the misery of others.

While seemingly pessimistic in nature, the denouement of these characters breaking the shackles and embracing the hostility of the storm ties the album together beautifully and offers a glimmer of hope.

Kate Tempest’sLet Them Eat Chaos

is available now through Caroline/Universal.

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