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Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good! (2023)

Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!

2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? was a transformative album for Jessie Ware. It was marked by a spectacular burst in confidence, evidenced by the album’s seven singles, but somewhat miraculously, it actually warranted that kind of fanfare. As a dance album, few recent albums this side of Beyoncé’s Renaissance have been able to toe the line between disco homage and genuine innovation. The trick of course is that both albums are really more than disco albums, they function as a dilution of dance music as a whole, grouping in funk, Hi-NRG, and new wave into a glossy, and distinctly 21st-century invention. That! Feels Good! nimbly catapults Ware from being beholden to What’s Your Pleasure? to cementing herself as one of the most agile and important dance artists working today.

That! Feels Good! had a lot of work to do. Its predecessor, although stylistically unique, had a prevailing disco trend and while effective, could have pigeonholed Ware if she hadn’t deviated enough on her next outing. She had also crafted one of the most consistent dance albums in recent memory, a genre not known for its consistency, and it was reasonable to question if she could do it again. Just how Ware would approach a follow-up, whether it be a rehash, or a reinvention, whether it would be lopsided and single-heavy, made it one of the most anticipated albums of 2023. The result is a punchier and more immediate album than What’s Your Pleasure?, slicker and far funkier, but equally iconoclastic.

The self-titled opener is as breathy and sex fixated as its title would imply, but with a limber, galloping bass line and creeping horns and strings that give the whole composition a relentless energy and make for an apt tone setter. Immediately following is lead single “Free Yourself,” a modern classic and probably the most singular single Ware’s ever released. As a song, it’s hard to think of a more nuanced combination of immediacy and timelessness, and despite all its bombast, it never eclipses the rest of the album – or even the track succeeding it. “Pearls” is the plainest imitation here, with its soaring vocals and non-lexical refrain, it’s obviously indebted to Chaka Khan. Her influence pops up throughout the album in fact, but it never distracts, only serving as what seems to be a necessary touchstone for the modern funk chanteuse.

Even the most idiosyncratic song on the record “Shake The Bottle” works despite what could easily be some major shortcomings. Ware’s wonky new wave verse delivery is probably the only way to make the silliness of the lyrics palatable, but with its inescapable chorus and swinging groove, she also manages to twist her horniness into a light and bouncy pop number, devoid of lust but just as fun all the same. Paired with the more straightforward sultriness of the R&B ballad “Lightning” the combo works. In fact, that’s Ware’s real trick here, exuding her sex appeal through every possible method, encompassing all those emotions into a single album, and then pairing each mood to the necessary genre exercise. It’s thematic, but also simplistic and obvious in its effectiveness. Ware’s tulips/two lips pun on the final track could easily ring hollow, but by that point That! Feels Good! has earned Ware’s earnest devotion to the heat of dance music in whatever way strikes her. 

~9.5

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