Name: The Line is a Curve
Brand: Kae Tempest

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

B3453402

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Standard Mintpack. 

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Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-04-08

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Universal

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

0602438639717

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

B3453702

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Extended format: Yes

Deluxe Mintpack with Poster.

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0602438639724

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0602438639724"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: Yes / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

B3453501

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black

0602438639748

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0602438639748"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

B3453601

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orange

Transparent Orange

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[r22794803]

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0602438639755

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1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / orange

Artist

Kae Tempest

Genre GB

Hip Hop

Label GB

Fiction

Albums of the Year So Far 2022

Kae Tempest the award-winning Sunday Times – bestselling author, poet and recording artist returns with the new Dan Carey produced album. It features guest spots from Grian Chatten, Lianne La Havas, Confucius MC, assia and Kevin Abstract.

<i>The Line Is A Curve</i> is about letting go. The core of the record is that the pressures we face do not always have to be heavy burdens, but can be reframed; the more pressure a person is under, the greater the possibility for release. The album plays like a chronicle of pressures - the mind-numbing pursuit of a comfortable life, the eternal striving for more, the pressures of the city, the country, the times. The pressures of maintaining relationships, of battling illness, addiction, poor mental health, the vacuous life of our online selves. As we move through these chronicles though, the mood brightens. The musicality becomes more expansive as the lyrical horizon broadens and we glimpse coastlines, high streets, scrap yards, train stations in the rain; the entire album begins to let go. We encounter the contributions of artists who I love and admire, guest vocalists and instrumentalists, and so we defeat the sense of isolation felt in the opening track with a sense of deeply connected community. 

More Pressure, the penultimate song, is the essence of the whole album and the epiphany that leads to Grace, which is a prayer, a surrendering; ‘Please move me, please move through me, please unscrew me, please loosen me up.’ But once we get to the end of Grace, and the album, we loop back to the start – to ‘Kiss off the day with a mute mouth. Pass the commute like I can die faster than you.’ Because no matter how much a person grapples with, realises, deeply understands, about life and their place in it, we still wake up in the morning back to square one. Life isn’t solved the minute you figure something out about it. It’s a daily operation to increase your resilience, cultivate a deeper acceptance, let go of what’s chasing you and lean in to the pressures. It’s cyclical, as I believe all things are. And instead of trying to fight the cycles, this album asks us to surrender to them. To let go. • These general themes, of acceptance, resilience, surrender are also about where I’m at in my personal life, in my journey towards a greater acceptance of myself as an artist and as a human being. Being more honest with the world and my community about who I am and letting go of some heavy heavy shame, which is a glorious thing. • This album has a beautiful heart, there is so much love running through it and I can’t wait for people to experience it.