Jessie Ware – ‘That! Feels Good!’ review: a true, forward-facing pop visionary

25 April, 2023

jessie ware

Jessie Ware is hooked on the feeling of self-expression. Labelling an album as ‘the real me’ is a line used all too often by pop stars, a declaration that often prefaces some lukewarm music, but the London vocalist’s fifth record feels genuinely enveloping: ‘That! Feels Good!’ is a maximalist tour de force of glossy pop sounds. A liberating collection that seeks to paint a three-dimensional picture of Ware – as “a lover, a freak and a mother”, as she sings on ‘Pearls’ – this album sees her embrace a Sasha Fierce-like alter ego in a celebration of dancing and female agency.

Ware has been working towards this moment for over a decade, constantly reaching for the stars throughout a fairly challenging career. With 2017’s middling ‘Glasshouse’ having been hobbled by an identity crisis, its follow-up, 2020’s ‘What’s Your Pleasure’, saw Ware illuminating her eccentricities; the latter’s strength was its total lack of subtlety, fuelled by Ware’s playful self-presentation and her use of big, thumping beats. Through it all, Ware’s newfound musical persona remained unmistakable: dramatic and theatrical, with a level of proud bravado.

Ware’s devoted following, and her many LGBTQ+ listeners in particular, have since turned to her for lively anthems that pay homage to the safe spaces made by and for the community. ‘That! Feels Good!’s 10 tracks often depict romantic relationships, but taken together, they are actually affirmations of self, a reflection of communal dancefloors world over. ‘Beautiful People’ doubles down on the sexual frisson of ‘70s disco classics, as well as inflections from the ballroom scene with its whispered vocals and marimba rhythms. The commandingly flirtatious ‘Shake The Bottle’, plus the aforementioned ‘Pearls’ – which was recently remixed by Brazilian artist and drag queen Pabllo Vittar – see Ware attack her lines via a precise staccato.

In the lead up to its release, Ware said that ‘That! Feels Good!’ is inspired largely by the confidence she developed as a performer after opening up for Harry Styles in the US last year. When listening to the loose and giddy ‘Freak Me Now’ or the soaring hook on ‘Lightning’, you could also draw similarities to Ellie Goulding’s escapist album ‘Higher Than Heaven’, which she described as her “least personal yet.” Similarly to Goulding’s recent effort, Ware finds solace in mighty piano house choruses that are playgrounds for sonic innovation, rather than emotional honesty.

‘Begin Again’ allows Ware to fulfil the album’s promise of genuine transformation: “Can I start again?,” she repeatedly asks herself through gorgeous melismas. There’s something about the song’s infectious freedom that feels like Jamie in his six-inch red heels at the end of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, only in Ware’s case, it’s her supersized pearl necklace. While a total aesthetic shift has been crucial to her longevity, ‘That! Feels Good!’ also feels the kind of magic trick that only this more outwardly confident version of Ware could pull off.