Jessie Ware
What's Your Pleasure?

In the contemporary music scene, crowded with starlets and plastic sounds, there are artists who, despite having great talent, have had to struggle quite a bit to be appreciated unanimously by critics and the public. English singer Jessie Ware falls into this category, and a nod to her biography can certainly confirm this.

Born in London in the Eighties, Jessie discovered her love for music at a young age, and was fortunate to be encouraged by her mother Helena, with whom she has always had an excellent relationship (the two even host a podcast dedicated to cooking, Table Manners). After collaborating with heavyweights like SBTRKT, Sampha, and Florence and the Machine, she released three albums (Devotion, Tough Love, and Glasshouse) characterized by an elegant sound and successful singles like “Wildest Moments”, “Night Light”, and “Selfish Love”. Further attention was drawn by some tracks written for Nicki Minaj and Ed Sheeran, testifying to an eclectic and unpredictable personality that does not shy away from forays into the so-called mainstream.

This glimpse into the career of the Hammersmith songwriter seems to paint the picture of a successful woman, with a resume rich in artistic experiences (and also a mother of two children, from her marriage to personal trainer Sam Burrows). However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that Jessie had not yet made that qualitative leap necessary to enter the pop Olympus. In other words, the album of consecration, the record that "blows up" and enables success after years of hard work, had not yet arrived. This all changed in 2020, when the singer released What’s Your Pleasure?, the latest chapter in a now-decade-long career.

What’s Your Pleasure can be considered a real watershed in Jessie Ware's discography. In its twelve tracks, in fact, the ballads of the past almost entirely disappear, replaced by those nu-disco sounds that seem to have become the new trend in contemporary pop. Jessie’s choice stems from the desire to return to the indie-dance of her beginnings and moreover responds to a very precise goal: to restore a truer image of the London singer, a simple girl, far from certain artificial divas buried under tons of eyeliner and lip gloss.

The first element to catch the eye is the great variety of the album, a multifaceted work in which Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, and Everything but the Girl coexist peacefully, almost as if they were roommates who, instead of fighting each other, decide to follow the balance that magically arises. The whole is enhanced by Jessie's sensual voice, which does not resort to special tricks to get noticed but to well-written lyrics and catchy, pleasantly retro melodies.

The opening track “Spotlight” immediately makes things clear: disco and acid-house flavored production, dreamy atmospheres, and a melancholic lyric not without more intense and passionate moments. The only flaw: some similarities to Dua Lipa's “Levitating”, released a few months before. Could Jessie's producers have listened to Future Nostalgia? Hard to say, but the song remains remarkable nonetheless, an example of mature and perfectly crafted pop (the video, shot in Belgrade aboard the famous Plavi Voz train, is also beautiful).

The good impressions are confirmed by the other tracks, where Jessie manages to fuse a wide range of influences without sounding prolix or disjointed. “Ooh La La”, “Soul Control”, and “Read My Lips” revive the years of electro and the Bananarama without being cliché, but light and sparkling, at times irresistible. In the title-track and in “Save a Kiss” you find yourself in front of a 21st-century disco diva, completely at ease with sounds reminiscent of the Abba, Moroder, and more refined house (and who doesn't shy away from "hot" phrases and questions: “Push. Press. More. Less./Here together/What's your pleasure?”). “Adore You” and “The Kill” do not disappoint, two suspended and evocative songs (the second is beautiful, characterized by orchestral arrangement and a reflection on the anxieties that often ruin romantic relationships). It's hard to forget the sophisti-pop of “In Your Eyes”, halfway between Lisa Stansfield and Everything but the Girl, or the closing “Remember Where You Are”, a tribute to “Les Fleurs” by Minnie Ripperton, accompanied by a video in which Gemma Arterton wanders through a ghostly and deserted London.

Is everything finished? Not at all: there’s the bonus disc of the Platinum Pleasure edition, containing remixes, b-sides, and a track like “Please” which would not have looked out of place on the official track list.

In short, What’s Your Pleasure? is certainly a high-level album, which pays tribute in a somewhat nostalgic way to the past and connects it to the sensibilities and uncertainties of the present. For this reason, its deeper meaning is synthesized by a song like “Remember Where You Are”: a personal dedication to a deserted city and world, with the hope of reconciliation, a return to normalcy. And it is truly curious that this is hoped for by a work that is anything but ordinary, able to mitigate the excesses that could have arisen from its numerous musical references.

The judgment is therefore positive: What’s Your Pleasure? is Jessie Ware's best album, which can now be recognized not only as an excellent author or performer but also as a respectable pop star, a star in the musical firmament that was just waiting for its consecration.

Which has finally arrived.

Rating: 4.5