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

pro tip: this song is amazing

http://soundcloud.com/jessieware/jessie-ware-110-1

it could totally be on 'velvet rope' right??

i'm really in love with this thing

I prefer "Running," which will probably be in my top ten. My favorite guitar solo in many months too.

but, yeah, she's worth watching. She reminds me of Shara Nelson.

There's also this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ltza7hYls

Looking forward to the album

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?

fucking love this song. definitely deserves a thread

original 'running' felt to me way too encumbered with reference and borrowed vibes, but tbf i did come to that conclusion when i was still getting to know her (which i guess i still am). alf have you heard the disclosure remix?

'110', it wasnt really until i heard it on the radio before i realised how much it goes, it's p catchy. not sure if it's gonna be a keeper but certainly one of those brief flings you kinda fall for a bit

Love this song

yeah I've played this song 20 times since I first heard it, I love it

i've been meaning to listen to this and "running" for MONTHS and didn't get round to them because i didn't think i'd have to make an effort. here we are now though, i like them all, on one listen "running" is better and neither are as good as "strangest feeling" but who knows how they'll shake out

"running" is totally and amazingly soft rock

just checked out Strangest Feeling, must have missed it last time around, amazing too. Think she's shaping up to be my 2012 pick of the girls looking at her trajectory.

i think i might start a thread for delilah at some point, her album is really surprisingly good

"running" is totally and amazingly soft rock

― kanye kardashian (lex pretend), Friday, 8 June 2012 12:06 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

so so so tryhard sade tho

just look at the single cover even

"maybe felt a little too record industry to capture the true desired lisa stansfield realness" is what i said about my first impressions of ware generally on the bobby caldwell thread

listening to the three singles together is weird, they're all good songs but they all feel like really overly deliberate attempts to capture a certain aesthetic - sade x soft rock for "running", delilahesque trip-hop revivalism x burial 3am night bus moods for "strangest feeling", airy summery "my boo" breezy realness for "110%"

i think i perhaps like "strangest feeling" best b/c being overly conscious and deliberate suits that gothy aesthetic well

http://i.imgur.com/D0TuS.jpg

1. Devotion
2. Wildest Moments
3. Running
4. Still Love Me
5. No To Love
6. Night Light
7. Swan Song
8. Sweet Talk
9. 110%
10. Taking In Water
11. Something Inside

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.

i like "Cool" which is more an 80s thing i suppose but thats another enjoyable aspect to me is its sense of nostalgia is more in a jukebox style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY8tAKDVxK8

ironically i remember worrying to brad & tim that "Don't Start Now" was kind of disappointingly mannered nu disco when it was released as a single which felt kind of like a backward step after "one kiss" & just pure pop (coughs in regretful coinage) like "new rules"

ends up the album short circuits these kinds of limitations by lifting from a sort of nostalgic pastiche that isn't quite as laser focused as jessie ware's

@flopson "Cool" "Physical" "Levitating" "Hallucinate" ofc, "Love Again" flipping the same sample as White Town lol ... it has a kind of whimsy

this is all a matter of personal pref of course, and as I said there's songs on the jessie ware album i love ... but its historical precision is the least interesting aspect of it imo, i think i'm drawn maybe to its perfectionism not bc of how accurately it conveys abcdefg cliches (though it does) but that as a side effect of how much i guess...passion? is required to take it to the limit like that, i think that kind of bubbles over in the elaborateness of the songcraft

also maybe understating the persona appeal of both artists

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