Album Review Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure

As by the time her third album, 2017’s ‘Glasshouse’ came to be, Jessie Ware’s music had all but faded into MOR blandness, it was easy to forget that the Londoner did emerge from club-ready roots, collaborations with SBTRKT, Sampha and labelmates Disclosure helping to first make her name. And while ‘What’s Your Pleasure’ doesn’t quite hit the heady heights of classic disco its soft-focus imagery might suggest, it’s both a more exciting - and natural - fit for the singer than we’ve heard in some time. ‘Save A Kiss’ is a blissed-out summer evening under the influence; ‘Ooh La La’ a heady earworm (with a bassline eerily similar to that of Dua Lipa’s ‘Break My Heart’ to boot); ‘Read My Lips’ a sizzling bop with the kind of ad-libs that can’t help but sound like fun. Sure, it might often fade into one long mood, all shimmering ‘80s synths and funk bass, semi-whispered lingering vocals and the promise of the night to come, but it’s a mood all the same.