That! Feels Good!

''That! Feels Good!'' is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Jessie Ware, released on 28 April 2023 via EMI Records. Co-produced by Stuart Price and James Ford, whom she had worked with on her previous record ''What's Your Pleasure?'' (2020), Ware co-wrote all tracks alongside Shungudzo, Danny Parker, Clarence Coffee Jr., Sarah Hudson and its producers.

The album was met with critical acclaim, earning Ware a nomination for Album of the Year at the 2023 Mercury Prize, Ware's first nomination for the award since her debut album. Commercially, Ware gained her second top-three entry on the UK Albums Chart after ''What's Your Pleasure?'', as well as her highest charting on the American Top Album Sales chart, peaking at number sixteen for one week.

To date, five singles have been released to promote the album, which includes a remix of the track "Freak Me Now" with Irish musician Róisín Murphy.

Background and release

The album was released on 28 April 2023, 3 years after the release of Ware's fourth studio album ''What's Your Pleasure?,'' released in 2020, which received widespread critical acclaim for its " disco-inspired" sound. ''Pitchfork'' placed the upcoming album on its list for "The 34 Most Anticipated Albums of 2023", with Marc Hogan stating that "Ware stayed well within that 'sex and dancing' sweet spot" following the release of her single "Free Yourself", released on 19 July 2022, as a "taster" to the album.

Ware teased tracks of various genres, including R&B, house and soul. In an interview with Primavera Sound's "RPS Presents" podcast, she described the record as "Remember Where You Are" but a "bit more soulful".

The album's title was unofficially announced in January through a set of billboards in London of Ware. This was later confirmed by Ware on 3 February 2023 in a social media post asking fans "Can you feel it?", with the official announcement coinciding with the release of the single "Pearls" on 9 February. The exclamation mark that follows "That" in the album's title (and its first track) was the choice of songwriter Shungudzo, who had previously worked with Ware on her ''What's Your Pleasure?'' record.

A teaser of "Pearls" was released on 6 February, with the track being released on 9 February following a premiere on ''The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show'' on BBC Radio 2. On 31 March, Ware released a "Pearls" remix by Pabllo Vittar and Brabo. "Begin Again" was released as the third single from the album on 13 April.

Following the album's release, "Freak Me Now" was announced as the album's fourth single on 14 July 2023, with singer Róisín Murphy (who also has a cameo in the title track) collaborating with Ware to remix the track. The release date was announced the day after, 15 July, with the track released on 27 July. "Hello Love" was also announced as a single on 27 October 2023, with Ware describing the track as "the most sentimental song" on the record.

Composition

The title track "That! Feels Good!" opens the record and features cameo vocals from various celebrities speaking the phrase, including singer Kylie Minogue (with whom Ware had collaborated on the single, " Kiss of Life" in 2021), actress Gemma Arterton (who appeared in the music video for "Remember Where You Are"), and Róisín Murphy (who recorded her vocals in an airport toilet and who would later work with Ware for a remix of "Freak Me Now"). Ware's rallying cries of "Just remember, pleasure is a right!" is underscored by "a supple, syncopated bassline". The verses of the track were compared to the rap on Blondie's "Rapture" by ''Paste''s Eric Bennet. The second track, "Free Yourself", was released as the first single from the record in July 2022 following a debut at Ware's headline set at that year's Glastonbury Festival. The Italo disco song uses keyboard stabs reminiscent of diva house music, before Ware directly addresses the listener, asking them to "hold steady through life's turbulence": "Keep on moving up that mountain top ..If it feels so good then baby, baby don't you—stop." "Pearls" is the third track on the album, and was released as the second single in February 2023. Inspired by Donna Summer, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Teena Marie and Chaka Khan, the "ascendant and evangelistic disco" track sees Ware "paint nga three-dimensional picture" of herself: "I'm so 9-to-5, I'm a lady / I'm a lover, a freak and a mother." The pace of the album slows down for the fifth single, "Hello Love", a soft track that was inspired by soul-led and groove-led artists the Gap Band and Donny Hathaway.

The middle section of the record sees "Begin Again", the third single released in April 2023 and the final track on side A of the vinyl, was inspired by trips to Brazil and features brass instrumentals from Kokoroko. “Why does all the purest love get filtered through machines?” asks Ware in the pre-chorus, who jokingly said the lyric "probably came" from writing the song long-distance over Zoom, but then going to elaborate about "being a prisoner to screens". "Beautiful People" celebrates nightclubbing and the community of people you encounter whilst doing so: "Beautiful people are everywhere, everywhere" repeats Ware with "ping-ponging" energy. The French house "Freak Me Now" sees Ware get "loose and giddy", featuring a "euphoric refrain" reminiscent of Raheem the Dream's "If You Ain't Got No Money".

In the final section of the album, spoken word verses of "Shake the Bottle" see Ware recount fictional stories of ex-lovers: "Benny wants what Benny gets, broken hearts and cigarettes / I really liked Jackson but he lived too far away / Eddy was romantic but he never, ever paid". Ware drew comparisons to lip syncs on ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and the melodrama of the song. The track was inspired by "Vogue", Grace Jones and the B-52's; its campness was compared to Countess Luann's "Money Can't Buy You Class" by ''The Independent''s Adam White and Cristina's "sharply witty depictions of New York's 80s hipster demi-monde" by ''The Guardians Alexis Petridis. Flirtatious innuendos tell the listener "That's the way to make my bottle pop!" "Lightning", a "gauzy trip-hop slow jam", sees Ware trace back to her R&B roots, taking hints from Sade, Madlib and Drake. The final track "These Lips" closes the record with "one last groovy dose of escapism", with a spoken word intro hinting at bringing the record full-circle.

Critical reception

''That! Feels Good!'' received widespread critical acclaim. Ware was praised for her "retro mood", creating a "maximalist tour de force of glossy pop sounds". At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 89, based on 19 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim", being her highest rated album since her debut album ''Devotion''. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave ''That! Feels Good!'' 8.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Andy Kellman claimed that, "Vocally, Ware has somehow found another gear, turning in her most commanding performances while having what sounds like a ball with her background singers." Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the ''Financial Times'' praised the record for shifting to "a more funk-and-soul-based sound", drawing comparisons to Chaka Khan's "majestic vocal attack" with Ware's single "Pearls". Eric Bennett of ''Paste'' wrote: "Part Madonna's ''Confessions on a Dance Floor'', part Countess LuAnn's 'Money Can't Buy You Class', ''That! Feels Good!'' is a record of sterling, mirrorball-lit songs and bawdy lyricism. It's Ware's finest collection of work to date." Alexis Petridis of ''The Guardian'' described it as "pop music made by people who really know what they're doing."

Sophie Williams of ''NME'' said this was Ware's "finest album of her career", calling it a "transformative experience". Julianne Escobedo Shepherd of ''Pitchfork'' commended its inspired take on disco, calling it "a genre revival album that's painstakingly true to its source material, but doesn't sound like a curdled rehash". Konstantinos Pappis compared the album to its predecessor in the review for ''Our Culture Mag'', writing that, "it feels like Ware is able to tap into a kind of emotionality that was a bit more measured on ''What's Your Pleasure?'' While the new record gives off the impression the singer is joyously living through others as well as herself, those intertwined needs – to escape and connect – now have deeper grounding." ''Retropop Magazine'' said, "Jessie delivers the perfect record, breathing a breath of fresh air into the commercial charts while paying homage to the icons that influenced her journey to becoming one of the UK's premier artists of the past decade. It's that good!"

Accolades

''That! Feels Good!'' has been included in various mid-year and year-end best-albums-of-2023 lists, and was shortlisted at the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''That! Feels Good!''

Musicians

* Jessie Ware – vocals
* James Ford – bass guitar, drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming, synthesizer (tracks 1, 4–6, 8, 10); horn arrangement (1, 4–6, 10), string arrangement (4, 5)
* Danny Parker – background vocals (1, 4–6, 8, 10)
* Adenikè Zen – background vocals (3, 4, 7)
* Nile Bailey – background vocals (1, 3–6, 8, 10)
* Elize Kellman – background vocals (1, 4–6, 8, 10)
* Shanice Steele – background vocals (1, 4–6, 8, 10)
* Shungudzo Kuyimba – background vocals (1, 4–6, 8, 10)
* Sheila Maurice Grey – horn arrangement, trumpet (1, 4–6, 10)
* Dan Grech-Marguerat – programming (1, 4–6, 8–10)
* Chelsea Carmichael – tenor saxophone (1, 4–6, 10)
* Viva Msimang – trombone (1, 4–6, 10)
* Dave Okumu – drums (1, 6, 8)
* Stuart Price – background vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards (2, 3, 7, 9); drums, piano (2); drum programming (3, 7, 9)
* Clarence Coffee Jr. – background vocals (2, 3, 7)
* Atlantic Horns – horns (2)
* Adam Blake – additional keyboards (3)
* Sarah Hudson – background vocals (3)
* Laura Moody – cello (4, 5)
* Richard Jones – string arrangement, viola (4, 5)
* Emma Smith – violin (4, 5)
* Jennymay Logan – violin (4, 5)

* "That! Feels Good!" features uncredited additional vocals by Kylie Minogue, Róisín Murphy, Gemma Arterton, Benny Blanco, Clara Amfo, Aisling Bea, Hayley Squires, Jamie Demetriou, and Ware's mother Lennie; and interpolations of "Blood on the Dance Floor", written and performed by Michael Jackson.

Technical

* James Ford – production, engineering (1, 4–6, 8, 10)
* Stuart Price – production, engineering (2, 3, 7, 9); mixing (2, 3, 7)
* Stuart Hawkes – mastering
* Dan Grech-Marguerat – mixing (1, 4–6, 8–10)
* Matt Jaggar – engineering (1, 4–6, 8, 10)
* Shungudzo Kuyimba – vocal production (1)
* Charles Haydon Hicks – mixing assistance (1, 4–6, 8–10)
* Luke Burgoyne – mixing assistance (1, 4–6, 8–10)
* George Chung – engineering assistance (1, 4–6, 8, 10)

Artwork

* Photography – Jack Grange
* Artwork – Rory Dewar

Charts

Release history

References

{{Jessie Ware

2023 albums
Albums produced by Stuart Price
EMI Records albums
Jessie Ware albums