INTERVIEW: Jessie Ware releases euphoric new album 'That! Feels Good!': "This record is me in an even more fulfilled, happier place in myself, giving out music for other people to escape to"

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Jack Grange

The UK’s Jessie Ware has experienced something of a career renaissance in the past few years. Her 2020 album What’s Your Pleasure? and 2021’s subsequent deluxe version The Platinum Pleasure Edition saw her embrace classic disco sounds and it became her highest charting album to date. It soundtracked countless lockdown kitchen discos and Ware told Women In Pop in 2021 its success was '“empowering and confidence boosting.”

Today Ware returns with her fifth studio album That! Feels Good!, which Ware created with a number of high profile producers including Stuart Price (Madonna, Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue), Clarence Coffee Jr (Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez) and James Ford (Birdy, Florence + The Machine).

The ten tracks on the album are again a delicious rush of disco infused pop, with a stronger focus on funk and soul this time around. It is pop music of the very highest order - Ware knows exactly how to construct music that is full-bodied, overflowing with heart and that never fails to make you move. Expertly crafted, there are always multiple layers to her tracks that make them an intriguing joy as you discover different sonic elements with every listen.

First single ‘Free Yourself’ is a sultry, hedonistic track which brings elements of 1990s house music into the mix, while ‘Pearls’ takes you deep into 1970s funk and soul with a giant vocal performance from Ware. ‘Shake The Bottle’ is an epic, lose your shit on the dancefloor moment, with wry, tongue in cheek lyrics ‘Eddie was romantic but he never paid,’ she sings. Intertwined with the upbeat tracks are calmer, reflective moments such as ‘Lightning’ and ‘Hello Love’ that sit more in the R&B space and hark back to Ware’s earliest music.

That! Feels Good! is a triumphant return for Ware and sits right up there as one of her greatest albums. With high energy songs that you can lose yourself in complete abandon to, but also find true meaning and connection in, it is a fully rounded collection that is a delight to listen to and must surely rank as one of 2023 greatest albums. We recently caught up with Ware to chat more about the creation of the album.

Jessie, it is so very lovely to speak to you again. Big congratulations on That! Feels Good! but before I go into that, I just also want to congratulate you on the amazing video that you made for 'Pearls'. Oh, my goodness! It’s absolutely beautiful.
You know, we went there! We tried something, and it was really fun. It was completely bonkers. I had bruises on my legs and my thighs from like throwing myself around, but it was so worth it. You've got to give Sophie Muller and Theo Adams credit for that because there's a reason why Sophie Muller is regarded as the OG of music videos, working with everyone from Sade to Eurythmics to Kylie to Rihanna. She is just brilliant. And Theo had this amazing idea and it just totally fitted it, it was tongue in cheek and melodramatic and glamorous. It was so perfect.

I know it's only one song from the album, but I really feel like it encapsulates so much of the album because the album is so fun and it's embracing. A lot of people have ‘gone disco’ and tried to do a disco track, but you've gone all in not just with the sound and the visuals, but the feel of what disco is. With this album, you've just encapsulated that escapism.
Yeah, with What's Your Pleasure, there was the escapism for myself to make something with dance. And I'm so proud of What's Your Pleasure, and it's amazing how well it's done, [but] this record is me in an even more fulfilled, happier place in myself, giving out music for other people to escape to. With his one is there's a warmth about it that feels, like you say, embracing and colourful and fun. I was always so scared of making happy music because I always felt like I sounded quite naff, and I thought it didn't tell a story enough for me. And I've completely turned my back on that because most of these songs are so full of happiness and joy, and that's probably what I was feeling about making music at the time. I just wanted to bring people to the dance floor, but in maybe a different sense then how What's Your Pleasure had. There's a warmth to this record, which I love and groove.

I'm always interested in how the music industry comes and goes in waves of acceptance and what we're accepting from our female pop artists, but there's always this question around if you're making pop music, and you happen to have a child, you either don't tell anyone about it, or you have to suddenly change your style of music because mothers don't get on the dancefloor. How do you feel about this stigma that we still place on female artists?
I take what you say, unfortunately, I do think things remain a bit skewed with how people view you once you become a mother. Which is very different to how if somebody becomes father, it's just less of a focus. A lot of that interest comes from a kindness and an interest. It's not damning, it's actually just interested. But I am a mum and I do feel like weirdly, my place on the dance floor is even more solidified and cemented now. I feel like I've grown in like stature and confidence and sensuality since making this music, but also since maybe becoming a mum as well. I've struggled with it, and I fought with it but I'm also really relishing where I am at the moment. Even the way that I present myself, and this kind of inner confidence that my fans have given me with the music. But also the way that my husband gives me that too, it's not that I need that from him but it's just being human right? I do feel more sensual, not more sexualised it's not like I'm writhing around for anybody else but I feel there's a confidence in the way that I am addressing being a woman, being sexual, being all of that. I feel actually like there's kind of more room for me on the dance floor now as I've got older.

And I think in this album you can hear it, I feel like the closer we get to the end the less fucks we give!
Yeah, honestly my mum give zero fucks anymore. And she's a 70 year old woman. I'm 38 but there is that kind of throwing caution to the wind, giving zero fucks. I still give a few fucks, many fucks, but there is that feeling comfortable with my skin, I am enjoying the world that I've created for my family, for me, for my career. It's not meant to sound smug, it's just been a bit of a struggle and I've survived it. And now I'm going to dance and have fun.

With the That! Feels Good! album, you have this whole idea, and you know where you're going with it. You can hear along the way how you grow, the curation of the tracklist is just beautiful.
Totally. I had such a definite idea of how I wanted the record to pan out. We started with songs like 'Begin Again', and many songs that haven't made the record, but they were important for me to get to it. I had quite high energy and needed moments of calm and of taking a step back, with songs like 'Hello Love', and 'Lightning'. I'm very lucky that I get to do many different worlds in this record, but I felt like it was very important to have those moments of calm and romance and more earnest moments because I didn't want people to be exhausted by the record. It was really fun curating that, especially the sequencing.

You have had an incredibly busy time touring and playing and doing all kinds of projects with all kinds of wonderful people. Tell me what's been the highlight of the last 12 months for you, apart from this album?Being able to finish touring What's Your Pleasure in the States and South America, being able to go to new places, and seeing the reaction and what I built, and what my fans have built. Being able to sign off from that era, to be like, ‘wow, that really felt beautiful’ and putting a bow on it. It was just a really satisfying way to finish the year last year, and to say goodbye to What's Your Pleasure for now. Also ticking of bucket list stuff, to play in Mexico and South America. Supporting Harry Styles was brilliant, I so wouldn't have been ready for that a few years ago. And I think it is due to the confidence that my fans have given me with the success of What's Your Pleasure, and also the show that we created with What's Your Pleasure, I felt so ready and up for it.

That! Feels Good! is out now via EMI Records. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Jessie Ware you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.