HAILED as one of the UK’s finest lyricists in generations, Kate Tempest has regularly reaffirmed exactly what makes her such a culturally important artist and an important voice of derision amid a sea of indifference.
Taking aim at nationalism, xenophobia, commercialisation and much more, she has delivered one of her most profound pieces of work yet with the dense and stirring ‘Europe Is Lost’.
Commenting upon how easily we are sedated by our appetite for ‘excess’ and “a night to remember that we’ll soon forget”, Tempest is positively vitriolic in her condemnation of a world in which “half a generation lives below the breadline” and a society that has enabled the planet to become “spoiled.”
No one is safe from her scathing assessment, particularly not The House Of Lords, the archaic political institution which feels the brunt of her frustration through a couple of incredibly worded barbs.
What Tempest has delivered with ‘Europe Is Lost’ is a protest song in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Chuck D, Immortal Technique and many more and is nothing short of pivotal listening.
