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

there are like 2-3 transcendent songs on here for sure and only 2-3 outright stinkers but the trouble is that the rest of it is vast swathes of perfectly adequate, catchy enough songs that i'd enjoy in a noncommittal way if the album was being played in a pub or something but that i really don't care about... "cruel", "you & i (forever)", "keep on lying", blahhhhh

much much worse than the katy b album, which i've seen bracketed into the same "disappointing second album" category, but which actually seems stronger than ever now (albeit with some judicious personal rearranging and deleting, though the equivalent cheating for tough love would leave me with an EP)

each track has some nice little touches in the arrangement that tell you that folks who know what they're doing are in control. that's a genuine pleasure (esp. on headphones, i find) but only a few tracks really take off. again, i put that down to the songwriting. there are too many songs that have very slight melodies, just short little phrases that rather than develop or build just kind of repeat. but i honestly don't think this album is much worse than the first one in that respect. and ultimately i have to say i like both albums quite a bit, not least because her voice is so compelling.

i have to say that although i sometimes wish her lyrics were more /specific/, she does have a really good sense for what words /sound/ good -- and how to sing them with maximum expressiveness without getting remotely florid about it. just the opening lines of "champagne kisses" are so beautifully delivered, with a very smart varying of the length of pauses between words/lines and that lovely scat singing ("do do do do do").

Here she is doing an absolutely gorgeous cover of Labrinth's "Jealous" (a song I have never heard of until now, clicked over to the original and it's boring as fuck so she totally elevates it) with a digression into Chaka's "Through the Fire"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZN6S6hqCdc

crap song, great singer.

Well, it's not the best song with that title.

Didn't know she was gonna put out a video for this but I love it

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

I have to say I've always quite liked Champagne Kisses but couldn't really understand quite the amount of attention it was getting. That video has made me get it a whole lot more. It's a great video.

that's sort of a brilliant video and entirely not what you'd think would fit the song but it does

irl lol @ the champagne button, has she been to bob bob ricard recently then

~are you waiting for something

Yeah, waiting for a new album from her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqWWS_3r4E

While waiting for Jessie's new album, Niia's _I_ rings a lot of the same bells, and feels similarly produced. "Sideline" is included both as a solo effort and with Jazmine Sullivan (whose "Stupid Girl" got a lot of love here last year).

I didn't realize it until I was told, but Robin Hannibal played a big role in the Niia album and once I knew that I could totally hear it in everything.

I didn't know that, either. Quite a discography! Love the Rhye and Quadron releases. He's even worked with The Internet. Syd's _Fin_ is another great 2017 disc.

Charlotte Day Wilson is another Jessie Ware soundalike I've been enjoying recently. Ngaiire too, although I've harped on about her here plenty already.

Anyway apparently Jessie's new single is coming out in a few weeks? It's rumoured to be titled "Midnight", which is coincidentally a prominent lyric in this Robin Hannibal-penned song that was cut from Tough Love...I'm not sure whether that means some recycling has happened or if she just has a strong fixation with the idea of midnight ("Midnight Caller" was a bonus track on the last album also)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ztmMNqRvTU

I was gonna revive this thread at the end of June to remark that I like the second album almost as much as the first, especially ("You and I Forever," "Sweetest Song," and "Midnight Caller").

Yeah, I read on Popjustice that she played a gig last week and announced her new single, Midnight is out in three weeks. Her third album is coming in October.

I lost count of how many times I listened to Tough Love (the album) to finally get into it. I still prefer Devotion but I've been listening it so much over the last year. Want Your Feeling and Tough Love are my two favourite songs of hers now.

Re: Ware's new single, she seems to have a thing for midnight eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwoz4rabCFY

Second album is better IMO, "Champagne Kisses" rules

^ one hundred percent down with this, love the second album, perfect ending

lol u can take me off ignore Ross!

sorry monotony, what does that mean?

lol nothing it's just that we made precisely the same point within 2 posts of each other!

New single is premiering on Annie Mac's BBCR1 show in a few hours' time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p059v972

This is absolutely gorgeous.

When the beat kicks in, it's very https://youtu.be/XbV7YuxsRA4

i was sure that youtube was going to be "benny and the jets"

Jessie Ware is the best

not mad about this on the first few listens

also Sheeran is on the album again :(

def. my least favourite of the first-run singles from the last 2 albums.

I've mentioned before but I always edit Ware's albums because there's always a few real duds IMO, hoping this album is more consistent

well, most albums have duds. She's not much different.

yeah, sure

There were duds on Devotion?

title track

i love "midnight" -- hearing her powerhouse diva vocals over a "bennie and the jets" pastiche gave me much-needed life -- but i hate how i get bruno mars' "that's what i like" stuck in my head after listening to it.

title track

― dyl, Friday, July 28, 2017 2:06 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's a great intro track.

otm

devotion title track rules

Yeah, I love the title track. It works perfectly as a build up to Wildest Moments. No To Love and Still Love Me are the weakest songs, but I still wouldn't call them duds.

the only dud imo is "pieces" on TOUGH LOVE -- otherwise they all bang in one way or another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8T9vB1zIVM

Not sure about this one. Weird single choice.

yeah i'm with ya, totally on the fence

I really like this, Sade's always been an obvious comparison point but this is proper Smooth Operator wine lodge vibes.

Video is 10/10 too, clearly going for hype via ~controversy~ but I think she pulls it off.

sounds like...... lovefool??

It reminds me more of Miss Chatelaine by K.D. Lang.

at first blush I was reminded of Tom Waits/ Lana Del Rey, perhaps that's a litle OTT

It reminds me of "Twist in My Sobriety" with a bossa laid on top.

lol i thought lovefool too

like it tho, all her last album tended to be grower for me

I think it's better than "Midnight".