The Weekly Album #19: Jessie Ware ‘That! Feels Good!’

My partner and I like to stream one full album a week, to keep our musical brains surprised. [May 22nd]

My pick was ‘That! Feels Good!’ by Jessie Ware, and DAMN, did I make an excellent choice if I do say so myself. This album’s good. This album’s so, so, so good, just trust me you guys. I knew I loved the absolute bop that is ‘Free Yourself’ when it landed on my Best of 2022 list within a single listen, but near enough this whole album is the kind of fun one singer simply doesn’t have the right to sustain across 40 minutes. Yeah, it’s a pure pastiche mix in its genres — modern dance pop (‘Freak Me Now’, ‘Lightning’), classic disco (‘Begin Again’, ‘Free Yourself’) and a few traces of blue-eyed soul (‘Pearls’, ‘Hello Love’) — and so what if it is? It does every one of them a hair’s breadth from perfect almost every time. Beautiful songwriting, a delicious production mix that always knows exactly when to bathe you in rich instrumentation or ease off and let the wonderful Ware’s voice absolutely soar, and a range of feeling from sensual to sorrowful to smooth that never fails to hit the right note for the song. Simply one of the best pop albums of the year, maybe even one of the best of this fitful decade so far.

BEST: ‘That! Feels Good!’, ‘Free Yourself’, ‘Pearls’, ‘Hello Love’, ‘Beautiful People’, ‘Freak Me Now’ WORST: ‘Shake the Bottle’ (maybe?)

Up next is ‘Take Me Back to Eden’ by Sleep Token…

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