Poetry, plays, novels, rap: whatever her mode of expression, Kate Tempest has consistently acquitted herself as a storyteller par excellence, vividly capturing the essence of life in the UK using little more than minutiae.
With music as her medium, last night the south Londoner set about rendering nuanced portraits of a cross section of British society, and awed the Apollo in the process. The show was divided into two acts: the first recapping some of the highlights of Tempest’s first two, Mercury-nominated albums, and the second entirely dedicated to her third LP, The Book Of Traps And Lessons, released in June.
With Boris Johnson’s self-imposed Brexit deadline looming, set opener Europe Is Lost felt more pertinent than ever, and its murky sub-bass even more menacing. Ketamine For Breakfast was similarly caustic, its throbbing synths and jackhammer beats overseen by the one additional musician.
The shift in mood during the second act was palpable, with songs from the Rick Rubin-produced collection proving warmer and more expansive, be it the bubbling synth arpeggios of Lessons or the loose hip hop groove of piano-led love song Firesmoke. But Tempest’s lyrical phrasing remained the focal point, as she dispatched dense verses with dizzying precision one moment and lingered expressively the next.
There will surely be few greater epitaphs for 2019 than set-closer People’s Faces. A tender piano ballad that preaches empathy in the face of division and offers hope in the midst of chaos. Last night it left the vast majority of the venue visibly moved.
