Tems Navigates Love and Self-Truth on Her New EP, ‘Love Is a Kingdom’

There’s an endearing way Tems writes about love. It’s from a perspective that demands the best behaviors of the people involved. For her, it seems relationships are not dreamy spaces where butterflies play in the sunset, but rather where people come to find their truest selves; some of her best songs have touched on this awareness. 

From “Higher” to “Avoid Things,” Tems has been a worthy poet of disillusioned love. When she’s not singing about what a lover could do better, she’s straight telling them off, basking in her own greatness. In this way, Tems has been a figure of self-confidence even while telling vulnerable stories.

On her new surprise EP, Love Is A Kingdom, the Nigerian star brings us further into her world of charged emotional situations. This being her third EP, it’s evident she thrives in the shorter release form and likes to go directly into her stories. 

As the title suggests, the new EP is a project mostly based on love narratives. Throughout its seven songs, Tems does what she does best: make us think about the state of our love lives and unleash the carefree side of ourselves. Most of the time in the EP, she lashes against lazy affection, but sometimes she’s yearning, at other times triumphant.

On “First,” she affirms, “hanging by myself these days / that’s the way I light it up.” Confrontation is an atmosphere in which Tems thrives, and when she breaks free from “[those] trying to control me,” there’s an intense lift in her voice that suggests she’s not merely singing about romantic love. It’s a declarative opener, one whose energy is replicated across the tape. 

Tems would know a thing or two about forgoing industry expectations, being an ‘Afrobeats’ star who primarily makes R&B and soul music.

On “Big Daddy,” she’s even more in-your-face, taking several shots at the character whom the song is named after. “Where were you when there was no one around?” she quizzes, skirting around the beat with a playfulness that gives even more punch to her questions. 

She continues her search for fulfillment on “Mine,” a song that resides in the same rhythmic scale as the other EP’s songs. Although not quite the standout, the project’s quality is redeemed in “What You Need,” possibly the best record on the tape. It’s like drinking water on a hot day. 

“I’m not what you need,” Tems sings repeatedly, refusing to fit into a simple box. When she touches this nerve, her singing becomes even more charged. You almost want to place a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

The consistency with which Tems challenges mediocre behaviour in relationships can either be perceived as overbearing or essential. Perhaps it’s a subject that’s very close to her heart, even beyond the music. As the great American storyteller James Baldwin once said, “every writer has only one story to tell, and he has to find a way of telling it until the meaning becomes clearer and [clearer].”

For most of the EP, Tems works through an unclear path to find reciprocation. Sometimes she’s direct (“if you want it, come and take it”), sometimes she’s biting (“love the way you give me nothing”), and elsewhere she’s reeling from the hurt (“I’m so confused to all the pain and suffering.”) Perhaps the strongest criticism of her is that she writes from the same emotional register in several songs. 

Rather than being specific, Tems’ preference for anonymity (she doesn’t mention names or places, or even time periods) brings a one-dimensional edge to her writing, which sometimes undermines the records. Even when the vocals and production refresh the sensory experience, we’re left with a slight longing for more complexity. 

GuiltyBeatz, who has mostly orchestrated Tems’ soundscape since If Orange Was A Place, once again brilliantly colors the artist’s vocals in this new EP. The drums are original, earthy yet clear, a suitable prism for Tems’ voice to shine. Given the often pensive tone of the writing, it makes sense for the sound to go the other way, achieving balance. 

Even the three songs the Ghanaian maverick didn't produce — of which the LONDON-produced “Lagos Love” is the best — pay attention to his tempo, once more reaffirming Tems’ place on the proverbial bridge which connects Africa to the global Black world via shared cultural sensibilities.

These are beautiful songs, but more importantly, they arrive in a world with a sore need for them. Passionately expressing Tems’ own needs and the world that will make them possible, they’re a fine extension of her story. 

Stream Love Is A Kingdom: