Jessie Ware
That! Feels Good!
EMI
ABOVE THE CURRENT
Jessie Ware’s new album That! Feels Good! sets out with the guiding principle that finding and experiencing pleasure is not only what you deserve, but it’s a divine right. In fact, the London-based dance-pop icon’s fifth album can very much be seen as a manifesto for embracing passions, seizing initiative, and following your own instinct toward highs both material and physical.
This MO is clear from the get-go, as album opener “That! Feels Good!” begins with a varied range of voices (including those of fellow nu-disco figureheads Kylie Minogue and Róisín Murphy) whispering, moaning, and exhaling the album’s title. Dropping into a groove-laden sound that’s emblematic of a variety of floor-filling classics, those voices follow Ware through the track as if she has her own entourage of backing dancers joining her on the dancefloor.
On 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure?, Ware fused house and disco to create flirtatious pop songs that didn’t just beckon, but dragged you to the nearest club. It was a hugely significant step for Ware after her more personal album, 2017’s Glasshouse, had seen her step away from her dance roots. Reclaiming a sound that felt much more in tune with herself on What’s Your Pleasure? was a key springboard to what materialized on That! Feels Good!, where not only have we re-entered the club, but we’re in the sweat-laden depths where the bass mimics body movements and the air of desire is so thick that you can practically feel the humidity.
There’s little surprise that Ware’s LGBTQ+ following has grown over the last few years, as her music emphasizes the very best of the clubbing culture and pop music spaces where queerness has found freedom from bigotry. The way that Ware writes about the freedom to explore desires on tracks such as “Free Yourself” and “Pearls” is entirely inclusive. Elsewhere, “Shake the Bottle” is delivered with the most blatant nudge and wink of the entire album as we hear of various hook-ups—some meaningful, some not so much—while an ensemble of characters embark upon their own journeys of self-discovery through pleasure.
There are a few moments throughout the album where we take a step off the dancefloor, where string sections reach for emotional resonance rather than higher BPM thrills. “Hello Love” and “Lightning” all too easily give in to romantic clichés with mentions of butterflies and feeling high when you’re with someone, undermining the more liberating aspects of the album. That! Feels Good! is better when it ditches the romanticisms and heads back into the neon-lit basements, where the tension of intimacy is explored through breathlessness and the undeniable energy of the record’s disco-driven sound. Ware’s vocals throughout are playful and dominant as she delights in innuendos and euphemisms with infectious enthusiasm.
That! Feels Good! will likely be one of the horniest albums you listen to this year, and it makes for a completely liberating listen. It’s an invitation into a judgment-free zone, and once you’re fully immersed, you can see why more and more people are being completely entranced by Jessie Ware’s disco-tinged pop music.
