[ photo by Kate Moross ]
Jessie Ware was in Guys and Dolls with Florence Welch, and her biggest hit thus far “Wildest Moments” was written after her roommate threw a pie at her. Those are my two favorite facts that I, now a proper Jessie Ware fanboy, have discovered after months of infatuation and hours of reading/listening to every interview ever conducted with the Brixton-born singer.
Personal obsession aside, the objective statement can be made that her debut album Devotion, released today in the US, is the best new music this week.
Devotion is one of those debut albums many describe as “genre-bending,” but this time the description is actually merited. She grew up on Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, and the Grease soundtrack, collaborated with dance artists SBTRKT and Joker, and admitted to having an infatuation with the American hip-hop of Drake, Aaliyah, and Frank Ocean. Annie Lennox and Sade are cited as her on-stage inspiration, and she wants her live performances to have the feel of the end of an 80’s film, preferably a prom scene.
The blending of that, done by anyone else, would actually be atrocious. Jessie Ware pulls it off. “Sweet Talk” is the Whitney Houston song never sung, “110%” is the breezy hip-hop sampling hit your summer lacked, and “Running” is the introduction of a new genre “Sade swag.”
She’s receiving massive critical praise – a review by the BBC states, “Throughout, there is a well-measured, well-mannered elegance that engages with more efficiency than many an artist dressing their material up as The Next Big Thing. There’s nothing “next” about Ware: she’s here, now, and superb.”
We agree.
Get involved with Jessie Ware via the links below.
Start with the video for the current single “Wildest Moments:”
Devotion is out now on Island Records. [ iTunes USA // outside USA ]
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