The R&B royal has returned, breaking a year-long drought of new music with a surprise EP.
Yes, Tems. Love, indeed, does feel like a land few of us can conquer. On her newest EP, Afrobeat princess Tems walks us through love’s many alcoves, dimensions, and ever-changing routes with a soothingly warm yet firm grip. Across seven tracks, the surprise project is rooted in sensibility, joy, and a refreshing sense of oversight. Snuggled in between the sizzle of shekree rattles and sweetly polyrhythmic conga drums, Tem’s smoothly glazed vocals navigate us down the oh-so slippery slide of love, longing and letting go <3
Those moments once lost in the soft hum of infatuation are forever captured. Leaning into atmospheric production and delightfully layered samples, Lagos Love shows a boulevard encased with sun-drenched sweetness as we follow the fading tide of children playing in the distance while Tems asks her lover to “love me the right way”. A few blocks over, What You Need and Is There a Reason bring us to the darker rumblings of a full heart as conga drums illuminate our path as we let go of those messy and complicated bonds. Landing like a wake-up call for that (at least) one friend with a shitty boyfriend, on Big Daddy, Tems asks the question we should all be asking ourselves: Should you really be calling your sub-par partner who refuses to cover the bill “Daddy”?
Written and produced entirely on her own, Love is a Kingdom marks a turn to delicately danceable introspection for Tems, reminding us that love’s world is as lush as it is unruly.
Images by Campbell Addy
