Nostalgic, soulful pop
English singer, songwriter and most recently, podcaster, Jessie Ware has been part of the music industry for a little over 11 years. However, she didn’t release her first album until 2009, which peaked at number five on the United Kingdom music charts. Ware is also known in the podcast realm, as she has co-hosted a popular food podcast with her mom since 2017. All four of her studio albums have charted in the UK, including her current release, What’s Your Pleasure?, which peaked at number three, making it her highest charting album to date.
What’s Your Pleasure? opens on track “Spotlight” which begins with a fairytale-esque melody, paired with pretty piano and Ware’s dreamy vocals and surprisingly turns into an ’70s-’80s power pop tune with a catchy melody and chorus of: “If only I could let you go/ If only I could be alone/ I just wanna stay/ In the moonlight/ This is our time in the spotlight.”
Listeners hear more of that oldies’ influence on song “Save a Kiss” that sounds like it’d fit right in to the Donna Summer age of disco pop, but also plays well into the modern-day indie take on the ’80s much like Haim’s hit songs. Even more so, a track like “Soul Control,” with its dance-pop beat and infectious rhythm, sounds like it was pulled right out of the transitional disco-to-soul era of music of the late ’70s.
The project ends on “Remember Where You Are,” a track Ware wrote all on her own. It sounds more ballad-like than most of the album, but still maintains that old school essence heard throughout the other songs. She even has the metaphorical, borderline melodramatic type of lyrics people often heard in pop music decades ago, like in the chorus “The heart of the city is on fire/ Sun on the rise, the highs are gonna fall But nothing is different in my arms/ So darling, remember where you are.”
The album is a bit of a breath of fresh air, as instead of going the electronic pop route many of her fellow pop companions are taking, Ware is channeling the past and reviving the soulful ’70s. She has seamlessly brought the nostalgic oldies sounds people love and miss to the present day pop world with What’s Your Pleasure?, all paired with her sweet, light vocals, making it a must listen.
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