Jessie Ware - 110% (and everything else she's done)

i wonder if i'm the only person on earth who feels sorry for jamie woon

haha the first thing i thought of when i heard "110%" was "aw, poor jamie woon"

jamie woon's album did decently, didn't it? and now he's just between albums.

capture the true desired lisa stansfield realness

i don't care man i'll take the imitation

sade is the real oak real and stansfield is the real plastic real tho, there's levels mayne

i guess what i'm saying is i am enjoying the video

yeah i dont actually know how woon's sold on the low but i dont feel his album was ever really in the air once it dropped, even in the liminal circles we're talking about. just seemed to drop and disappear

anyway i wouldnt care to speculate on what he deserved but it was definitely more than what he got. i felt like he made brave-ish decisions on that album he didnt have to if he was just playing to the gallery and it's a shame they werent acknowledged at very least

ok maybe brave is too strong but whatever, he stuck to his guns somewhat and i respect that

Produced by Julio Bashmore if you were wondering. It's blowing up, just an hour ago I heard it on a radio station in Mexico City and was wondering what ILM thought about it.

For all the reference points being thrown around here, and I know Jessie Ware's coming from a completely different place, but you could put 110% on the Grimes album and no one would notice. Its level of base competency is higher and it's a good song but I'm not sure the production does it many favours. I listened to Running straight afterwards and liked that one more.

Bit disappointed that so many of these jobbing post-dubstep vocalists seem to be defaulting to a very similar soft-rock middle ground, and yeah while it might be a brave decision up against whatever the FACT-reading bores are clamouring for, you need serious songwriting ability to pull of that aesthetic well and I dunno if any of these guys do.

Does Roses Gabor have a post-guest-vocalist career yet? That might be promising.

"running" is as good as "110%"... this might be my most anticipated album of the year atm

assuming d'angelo isn't putting an album out

Running > 110% for me, but just barely.

I hadn't been slotting Woon into this space in my brain, but now that it's been mentioned it totally makes sense.

No clue what he sold, but that album was mad underrated even on ILM, given the love for 'Night Air'. There were a LARGE number of jams there.

I love the video for 110% almost as much as the song. I can't figure out what the muffled sample in the background is saying, "carving my initials on your forehead" I think?

― boxedjoy, Friday, June 8, 2012 5:57 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You heard it right - it's a sample from Big Pun's Dream Shatterer, I think.

hmmm, not so sure about this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FnOBjARwNi0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnOBjARwNi0

baby in our wildest moomins

i like this a lot

http://vimeo.com/38905074

hadnt seen it before but this song off the alb is the real deal

"wildest moments" is amazing

fully in love with all the singles now. i think "running" might have shaken out as my favourite so far

think i might be talking to her next week

i'm really taken with how - similar to wynter gordon's newest stuff - ware's vocal strategy is a perfect midpoint between r&b and female singer-songwriter

hmm...I heard "Stimela" and wasn't impressed.

Holy fuck her album is going to be amazing. "Sweet Talk," the latest track to be released, is ANOTHER great track. When the guitars drop in at 2:30... one of the best musical moments of the year. Man this girl's on a roll.

Can we change this thread to "general jessie ware thread" btw i think it's about time

As requested, kinda.

that works. thanks ned!

+1 for Running. Shades of Sade, tasteful trip-hop, etc.

Still I actually liked tasteful trip-hop. Makes me want to go listen to a Moloko record.

That was a good interview BTW, Lex. I wouldn't mind seeing dance music in the UK go classy again like back in the 2-step heyday.

I wouldn't mind seeing dance music in the UK go classy again like back in the 2-step heyday.

I'm not sure this sentence makes sense really? Unless by "2-step" you basically mean MJ Cole and Wookie?

Yeah, and some Dem 2 tracks and Tuff Jam.

And Craig David.

"Wildest Dreams" has insinuated itself into my life so shrewdly.

"Wildest Moments" of course

I love all the singles so far, and I'm hardly into vocal pop, so she must be doing something right (or disastrously wrong).

110% is lovely!

reminds me of Mr Fingers oddly enough

is it in the charts?

the album is really great btw

the beats and production are great but for the most part you don't really think of it as a "uk dance" album - even bashmore's tracks, despite his distinct and characterful style, aren't recognisably him. it's more great production in the fleetwood mac sense, except from the obvious perspective of someone who grew up on ukg and hip-hop coming through in the rhythms and occasional sample. she's great at BIG CHORUSES. she's kinda annie lennoxy in a good way.

I like that description.

It makes me anticipate that this is to UK beats as Bedtime Stories largely is to US beats...? Is that off base?

maybe if i think about it that might make sense but the key difference is that bedtime stories was a very intimate and obviously carnal album, whereas devotion is all sweeping grandeur and emotions writ large and jessie being imperious, and in fact my only (not v meaningful) quibble is that she can't really do lustful very well (like, "running" is superb and all but when i listened to the lyrics i couldn't help but feel it needed a touch more of that about it)

oh i'm relistening now, i forgot how much "sweet talk" reminds me of dâm-funk

ha that's interesting

i'm on my toes waiting for this to leak.

i think my favourite non-single is "night light"

or maybe "taking in water"

of all available stocks and shares on the market 'run to love' sounding v much like loose ends or whatever (plus the bobby caldwell cover i guess) had me most down for a kinda uk boogie britsoul update thing

60% less enthused by other framings

I heard "Wildest Moments" last month when it made the blog rounds, but I'm just now catching up with all the rest. I'm not completely off base by hearing a little Sade in some of this, am I?

ctrl+f tells me no.

wildest moomins is probably her least sade number however just in case you were feeling perceptive there

srsly why does she sing it like that

is it a reflex morrissey tribute thing like what tarrus riley also sometimes does

The track that samples Morricone that she’s played live a couple of times (“Ride”) is I think coming out next week. It seems like potentially it could be a hot mess but at the very least it’ll be less safe than the lead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-NjEx6v-tk

kinda reminds me of "hung up"

idk it's sort of a mess

Ha I was just coming here to say the same thing, except this isn't even half the song Hung Up is.

I actually like it a lot more than I thought I was going to, the restraint on the verses is nice.

There’s another song “Mr Valentine” going around that she played on the radio that sounds good to me too

just like "hung up" the sample feels a bit forced but it doesn't have the relentless hooks of "hung up" to make up

idk I don't hear "Hung Up."

I assumed that was meant in terms of using a huge sample?

oh okay

the sample has the same feeling as the sample in "hung up"

The album...i'm not totally sold. "Mr Valentine" is probably my favourite track, mostly because it's the peppiest. "Sauna" and "Ride" feel beamed in from different albums. there's a bit of Shirley Bassey ("don't you know who i am") and Barbra Streisand ("16 summers") cosplay towards the end, which I don't think quite works, or at least, isn't what I'm looking for from jessie.

"Love You For" and "Mon Amour" are probably the best of the Minnie Riperton-influenced tracks

I'm pleasantly surprised by this. It's a lot more subtle than That Feels Good and its all the better for it. 16 Summers is the only that didn't really work for me after one listen.

Super!Bloom

it's good-not-great but at least it's good

I like the title track

This is laaaaaaaame.

this feels like two or three different albums awkwardly shoved together which compares pretty poorly to what's your pleasure which synthesised all those same influences into a coherent whole

otherwise this is all just... fine. no huge missteps but nothing to really love either. the minnie tipperton stuff isn't really as rich as it needs to be? she can just do better than this

i went back to this feels good because i don't remember it much and this is definitely a step down.

devotion & what's your pleasure both very successfully blended modern house production with various retro influences, just in different ways, and that's ultimately what i want more of from her i think

I think this album is good and I wish her continued success and she’s vv likable but for me her twin towers are Devotion and WYP, Tough Love being a couple steps back. She’s so excellent doing the house influenced thing, she works really well within an actual groove. I sort of assume she’ll return to that well once more in the future, this is better than the last one but still not my thing.

It’s one of those “good” albums which is pleasant but it doesn’t grab me. I still remember hearing Devotion and the whole thing just kills, same for WYP. I think her ambition takes her a bit out of her wheelhouse. I don’t begrudge her going for it though.

Yeah, What's Your Pleasure and Devotion are easily her best albums. She just got it exactly right on both of those.

After a few plays, I'd probably put this new one on the same level as Tough Love. Maybe the latter has higher highs, but it also has Say You Love Me which is frustratingly still one of her biggest hits. I seem to enjoy That Feels Good more than most on here, but it does have its issues. After a solid first half it does dip in that second half. Shake The Bottle and Freak Me Now wore off me so quickly and actually started to grate on me after a while. Even the more obvious moments like Mr Valentine, Ride and Don't You Know Who I Am don't on the new one don't sound like she's trying too hard like the weaker moments on That Feels Good.

Surprisingly I'm kinda into most of this record after not caring about the pre-release singles too terribly much. In hindsight, That! Feels Good! might have been her New Jersey, and Superbloom is a reset.

i'll be testing this album out with my kids and report back with utterly pointless findings.

So far not feeling this one as much as the last two albums. Everything is good but only "Automatic" has stuck with me. Her singing is great on the album though, the varying styles help showcase her range

Genuine lol from the Pitchfork review: The songwriting is so chaste and disembodied that an Old Hollywood censor would have no problem greenlighting it. Arms and the sensation of being held by them is the record’s prevailing erotic act, appearing on the title track, “Automatic,” “Love You For,” and “No Consequences.” Ditto “touch,” evoked in such non-descript ways that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was part of a Covid protocol.

I loved this on my first run through

if you wanna
last long-ah
I need faster
I need strong-ah
take me to the sauna

i heard there were some r&b-ish type records on this album, sorta taking it back to the beginning a bit. is that true and if so which ones?

She don't need faster!

Slow me down
Spin me 'round
Come and pitch me up
Pull the plug
On the rug
Baby, keep it up

I want it all the way up, up, up, up, up

I love

I love Superbloom but not sure I'm a good Jessie Ware as I also loved That! Feels Good! Especially the singles.

Oh the "I love" part is not lyrics but got cut off.

Jessie Ware evaluator..as I