Jessie Ware
That! Feels Good!

If there's one thing Jessie Ware deserves admiration for, regardless of what one thinks of her music, it's the decisive turn she has given to her career, leading to a true artistic rebirth which, ironically, came precisely with what she thought would be the album that would mark the end; yet here comes “What’s Your Pleasure?” which not only gave her the first real public success since “Devotion,” but also earned her critical acclaim. After two tepidly received albums, critics were quick to crown her as one of the most interesting artists of recent years and the undisputed queen of the disco music revival that was prominent in 2020.

Was it a flash in the pan? Not even close! Indeed, three years after that successful album, Jessie Ware hasn't lost a bit of her regained enthusiasm and takes us directly into the second chapter of her new musical life with “That! Feels Good!,” which, beyond being a conscious commercial endeavor (she herself realized that her audience expects such albums from her, not the collections of heartbreak ballads like “Tough Love” and “Glasshouse”), is in every sense a demonstration of sincere respect and philological love for the genre that, in the end, launched her at the time of her debut. The result of such enthusiasm doesn't reach the heights of “What’s Your Pleasure?,” which was possibly written in an unrepeatable state of grace, but it is still a fun and heartfelt album in which Ware wisely decides not to repeat herself and instead continues her personal exploration of Disco music by turning the clock even further back: if previously the focus was on the Eighties, this time we go straight to the Seventies. Out goes the multitude of Moroder-type synthesizers, in come brass, strings, and Brazilian percussion for a series of arrangements that manage to be pompous and theatrical, but never unpleasant or out of place, instead helping to convey a sense of grandeur that Jessie’s velvety voice commands with class and elegance. Exemplary in this regard are the singles “Free Yourself” and “Begin Again,” with the former reinterpreting the reference period in a Nu-disco key and the latter nailing one of the most memorable choruses of the lineup. "Pearls” is also impressive, another big single where Ware climbs unreachable vocal heights on an exquisitely Chic base, and “Freak Me Now” (even more appealing in the remix version with Róisín Murphy), which instead is an anthem to vintage French-touch, or again the Brazilian funk of “Beautiful People.” In short, Jessie may not reach the peaks of her previous album, perhaps because the surprise effect faded with it for us listeners, but she remains inspired, so much so that she manages to include a ballad, “Hello Love,” which is not unpleasant at all. In fact, it is probably the song she always wanted to write but never appeared in her early works; it's just a pity that, perhaps in the joy of creating such a piece, she got carried away and wrote “Lightning,” the only blemish in an otherwise perfect lineup and which, moreover, isn't even bad, but really doesn't fit with the rest of the album.

Luckily, the finale is entrusted to “These Lips,” another textbook number that concludes an album that convinces and proves that “What’s Your Pleasure?” wasn’t just a flash in the pan, but the first crucial piece of a new artistic path and expression of a potential that was always there, but took time to materialize and now can explode in all its compelling, liberating energy. In a nutshell, Disco music has a new queen, and she doesn't seem ready to leave anytime soon: ready to hit the dance floor?