Self Titled is the sound of Kae Tempest stepping fully into their vulnerable, defiant self with a new kind of strength. Long celebrated for sharply-observed character studies of ordinary people, Tempest now turns that lens inward with an unflinching dissection of gender, identity, and the world’s response to transition. Where previous albums used fictionalised characters as a canvas for empathy, Self Titled is pure confession, and the effect is devastating.

Tempest always used to have a kind of fragility that made even their most biting observations feel intimate, but here there’s a sense of assuredness that permeates the record. Tempest revisits painful memories and addresses the political realities of trans existence in 2025 with the clarity and incision of a surgeon, balancing grit with accessibility. The grime and hip-hop textures Tempest has long drawn on remain intact, but they’re rendered with a groove-laden sheen that could sit on mainstream radio. Sunshine on Catford is blissful and unexpectedly tender, showing Tempest’s range as both writer and performer. Diagnoses rails against the over-pathologisation of human suffering as a rallying cry for the mentally ill and the marginalised. Statue In The Square radiates swagger, but it’s Know Yourself that delivers the most arresting moment, as Tempest’s current voice converses with their pre-transition self. A dialogue across time between two iterations of the same soul, it’s an astonishing artistic choice. Self Titled transforms the external scrutiny of Tempest’s transition, politicised in ways that are deeply exhausting and unjust, into art that’s empathetic, confrontational, and deeply human. A phoenix-from-the-flames record that carries rage, but remarkably little bitterness. Where Kae Tempest once built worlds of fictional lives to explore big ideas to critical acclaim, turning the lens inward has produced their most powerful statement to date.