15 Greatest Protest Songs Of The 21st Century
1. Kate Tempest - "Europe Is Lost"
Key Lyrics: "The people were dead in droves // And no, nobody noticed // Well, some of them noticed // You could tell by the emoji they posted"
In "Europe Is Lost", Kate Tempest tries to address just about everything that's wrong with the world in a 5-minute song. While that may sound like an unreasonably tall task, it's amazing how close she comes to nailing it.
The song as a whole is a portrait of just how divisive and disordered the world has become, while many individual lines are dedicated to our overall shallowness. When we get bored of the atrocity de jour, we simply post a half-hearted condolence on social media and move on.
Tempest doesn't gently nudge listeners into holding hands or politely ask everyone to stand united, she bashes us in the nose with hard truths and chastises us for all-but-ignoring the hopelessness and despair happening right in our backyards.
The beat is thick and visceral, her list of political affronts is as long as it is sharp, and her delivery ramps up with every brutally-honest line until she's practically gasping for air as she begs us to rise above the meaningless distractions in our lives and take real action. It's nearly perfect.