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

i'm really falling for what's your pleasure, yeah i know i'm late to the party. it's just so romantic and in spite of the maxed out (gorgeous) production choices the melodies are often very urgent and straightforward. there might be a little placebo in this but i bought a hi-res digital download of the thing and my god the spatial dimensions are super lit, it really sounds amazing. also i feel like the classical disco influences aren't as present as like the last 15-20 years of super lush nu-disco.

man, "in your eyes" ...

there's no weak spots on here

I keep finding new favorite songs in here. “Step Into My Life” was one of the songs I didn’t care much about the first couple of spins but right now it’s my favorite one.

I'm feeling this with the title track! "Read My Lips" remains my personal fave of the moment

love how the last minute of “step into my life” calls “is it love you’re after?” by rose royce to mind

this reminds me of that kathy diamond record

Better.

i'm checking out some kathy diamond tracks based on the mention... is it just me or is she .. a pretty bad singer? lol

jessie ware is a GREAT singer.

it's sort of crazy how this album has finally bowled me over in the last week or so. i don't know how to account for it. i'm just totally awe-struck.

i still think the 'classic disco' angle doesn't really capture makes this thing so special. i guess it has some classic elements in the appearance of certain instruments and in how the vocals are produced (they aren't these bright monochromatic slabs, they sound like human mouths singing human words) but there are also bracing, modern elements, like the last bit (coda?) of 'ooh la la' with the high synth colors that sound like the feeling of driving really fast and taking a hit of nicotine. the strings are also more inventive than a lot of classic disco imo, even patrick adams.. they're very imagistic and have a swirl to them that reminds me of scott walker arrangements.

ya it bangs - have you subbed in the single edit of spotlight for the album version?

I mean has everyone already

kathy diamond rocks but feels p different to me

i’ve listened to the single edit and album version of spotlight back to back to figure out what people find radically different about them and am at a loss

map otm that the strings are where it’s at

Miss Diamond To You is near the top of my all-time favourites, but her voice isn't the point

i like the album take better for Spotlight; more room to lounge and soak

Tbh this feels less like the Kathy Diamond record specifically and more just, like, a Maurice Fulton production in general

steve do you love the new boof album?

lol this is pretty great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLhfECsvzvQ

weird to see dominic cummings in a jessie ware video

I think there's a lightness of touch which I find personally more exciting w/ the Dua album, which has these kind of strictures that force it to sound a bit more of-its-time, certain melodic choices it makes, the way it cuts quickly and makes some unconventional harmonic/melodic moves for disco while not really going full-blown generic pop, that make it feel less like periodicization and instead like a kind of weird hybrid.

I think this is generally true about the differences between the two records, and while I like the Dua album a lot it has about as much lightness of touch as a force-ten gale and that's part of the appeal.

yah tho i specificially meant that about the sort of unpredictable almost whimsical way it plays w different era pastiche's i agree calling the album 'light of touch' outside that extremely narrow strata seems kind of off tm

for those who were as swept up by what's your pleasure as i was, may i recommend
Azana - Ingoma

my feelings exactly :-)

i would fuck with the afrobeats tunes so much more if there were high-res downloads available

Jessie Ware has afrobeats tunes?

Anyway, everyone should check out the Azana album (which is not afrobeats but gorgeous South African soul and house)

seems cruel to edit even a second from this song but i guess i can overlook it if we get latex gloves & huge hair moments instead

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

So good. I think clips like this kind of validate but also respond to deej’s point about these songs being mannered - like, yes they are and she fucking loves it

There was already this video (Ware-approved and/or -commissioned, it's on her YT):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_o7XpnEqA

yeah, i have much preferred the individual dancer videos, they seem to capture the vibe of the moment much better

guys one thing has come to my attention after repeated listens to the album, and that is ...

the lyrics are (mostly) bad :(

They serve the beats.

i need the whole package

it's quarantine, honey. Use your imagination like the rest of us.

jessie ware has never been a lyrics-forward artist anyway

there's an art to unobtrusive lyrics that don't actively detract from the experience!

A craft at which even Bernard Sumner failed sometimes.

and I like the lyrics of the last two tracks just fine

i take it back about the lyrics, they're good actually, i just heard a few clunkers on "read my lips" the other day and extrapolated

any good remixes so far? the album has if anything just grown on me more over the course of the summer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHwsQHvmQ-c

i think that's literally the only one though? (i wish i liked it more.) hoping for more.

jessie needs rave synth drama not a moodymann-lite treatment imo

Georgia's remix of "What's Your Pleasure" is closer to rave synth drama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgZilR39_BY

ty

i think that's literally the only one though? (i wish i liked it more.) hoping for more.

Only good one or only one? (as there's quite a lot of remixes on Spotify)

ok a bunch more since the last time i checked

hey yall who invoked Azana, thanx so much! Just now listed, then commented & linked to Frank Kogan, who had sent South African picks:
Here's a good -sounding playlist, all from her currrent album, Ingoma, I think--might seem a bit ballad-y at first, but mostly of a smooth pulsation, luxury class but never wasteful---or wasted, alas; I wouldn't something a little less reasonable, but she's as good, as that gets. Relatively mainstream "Your Love" is even a fave---first single, and I totally get that, ditto the plainer version of "Goodbye," but most faves make more overt use of "ethnic" elements, like the other version of "Goodbye," feat. Just Bheki and Afriikan Papi, and another fave, "Uthando Lwangemela" (that might be my No.1), also "Sikelela", with 0 guests listed. Ditto the mystique of "Egoli," with clipped accents drawing catchy verses around the sidewalk, then chorus stretching some syllables toward dreamtime--here's the playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgV3lUftsRbYnDhoIIwZoqvIfFN4gOYkF
And one of several not on the list, v. catchy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNCml8NfC8I
There's also a live at the Redbox set, where she performs the whole album, apparently, haven;t listened to that yet (several African artists with vids from the Redbox, I see) (Oh also on the list: "Lovers and Best Friends," feat. Disciples of House.)

Somebody in YT comments said, like, "If she were Anita Baker or Sade, people would be raving." Yeah she's in there between them, vibe-wise, also found/from her own nexus.

Also think of Sade re more sensuous phrasing (of Jessie) brushing by on the beat train, overall effect also recalling that Sade is a band. Agree that while JW has her Granny's disco collection down as ground, she's also learned from subsequent releases, sounds like she might like Robyn, for inst.

"More sensuous" sometimes than others on *her* album, I mean, not comparing her to Azana.