Tems – Love Is A Kingdom EP review: charting love in all its many shapes
Over the past year, Tems has moved with the force of something unstoppable. After the release of her immaculate 2024 debut Born in the Wild, she cemented herself as one of contemporary R&B’s most vital figures — an artist capable of dominating charts, selling out a global tour and collecting major awards without ever feeling overexposed. For many musicians, that kind of success would signal a pause: a victory lap, a retreat into the background, time to quietly assemble the next era.
Tems chooses a different path. Rather than chasing momentum outward, she turns inward with Love Is A Kingdom, a surprise EP recorded in the same London studio that birthed her debut. Across seven tracks, she examines love in its many guises: love of self, love shaped by suspicion, inherited love, romantic love, spiritual love — the love you hold tightly and the love you learn to release. With Tems handling the bulk of the production herself, the project feels like a personal compass, a way of staying grounded while fame threatens to distort everything around her.
At 30, Tems moves through the EP with a quiet but unshakeable sense of self-worth, a confidence that feels both earned and protective. That assurance opens the record. On the bright, buoyant “First”, she delivers a self-love mantra with steely resolve, repeating that she comes “fir-first, fir-first” like a declaration carved into stone. The tone hardens on “Big Daddy”, where she shifts from warmth to scrutiny, calling out opportunists drawn to her rising profile. Floating over a jagged yet melodic bassline, she delivers one of the EP’s sharpest lines with chilling calm: “Are you high on a mountain to be calling me? / You may look like you’re breathing, but you’re dead to me.”
Romantic love, too, gets its space — but always on Tems’ terms. On “I’m Not Sure”, uncertainty unfolds gently, her voice light and careful as she sets boundaries rather than begging for reassurance. “Be on time, time, time, if you’re mine, mine, mine,” she sings, offering devotion only where it’s deserved. That restraint dissolves into something bolder on “Mine”, a dancefloor-ready surge driven by booming 808s, punchy log drums and crisp percussion. It’s playful and assertive, projecting desire into the future while keeping her autonomy firmly intact.
The EP’s most unexpected turn arrives with “Is There A Reason?”, a track that feels both intimate and daring. Here, Tems steps beyond her usual first-person storytelling to voice a private spiritual reckoning. Minimal keys and hushed synths frame her as she questions the nature of divine love itself: “Is there a reason? / Why do you love me like this?” Prayer becomes melody, melody becomes meditation. It’s vulnerable without being fragile, reverent without feeling distant — a striking culmination of the EP’s emotional arc.
Throughout Love Is A Kingdom, Tems explores the gentlest corners of her inner world, revealing love as something tender, complex and unwavering. By the time the final notes drift away, the EP feels less like a response to success and more like a recalibration. It’s a project rooted not in applause or spectacle, but in clarity, intention and self-alignment — a reminder that the most powerful form of love is the one you learn to give yourself first.
