''What's Your Pleasure?'' is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter

Jessie Ware Jessica Lois Ware (born 15 October 1984) is an English singer, songwriter and broadcaster. Ware came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album, ''Devotion'' (2012), which peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart, produce ...

, released on 26 June 2020 by

PMR Records PMR Records is an independent record label founded by Ben and Daniel Parmar in 2011. Initially building recognition as a quintessentially British outlet plugged in to local dance/electronic music culture, with a keen awareness of the trajectory ...

and

Virgin EMI Records Virgin EMI Records was a British record label owned by the Universal Music Group that was formed in 2013. In June 2020, the label was rebranded as EMI Records, and operates Virgin Records as an imprint of the new EMI Records. History Virgin ...

. Ware and co-producer James Ford co-wrote all tracks, along with writers and producers

Benji B Benjamin Benstead, known professionally as Benji B, is a British DJ, radio presenter, and record producer. A longtime BBC Radio producer and presenter, he has presented a weekly show on BBC Radio 1 since 2010 that highlights an eclectic mix of h ...

Joseph Mount Joseph Patrick Kennith Mount (born 11 September 1982) is an English musician and record producer. He is the founder of British band Metronomy. Biography Mount started out as a rock and roll drummer, playing in various bands at school and then ...

Kindness Kindness is a type of behavior marked by acts of generosity, consideration, rendering assistant or concern for others, without expecting praise or reward in return. Kindness is a topic of interest in philosophy, religion, and psychology. Kin ...

Morgan Geist Morgan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Morgan (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Morgan le Fay, a powerful witch in Arthurian legend * Morgan (surname), a surname of Welsh origin * Morgan (singer), ...

Matthew Tavares Matthew Adam Tavares (born September 15, 1990), also known as Matty, is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and music producer. He is best known as a founder of the instrumental group BADBADNOTGOOD, with whom he released five studio albums and prod ...

and Midland. The album received widespread critical acclaim. It was also a commercial success, earning Ware her first top-three entry and, to date, her highest peak position on both the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

and

Scottish Albums Chart The Scottish Albums Chart is a chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) which is based on how physical and digital sales towards the UK Albums Chart fare in Scotland. The official singles chart for Scotland, the Scottish Singles Chart, ...

. Five singles have been released to promote the album. In April 2021, ''What's Your Pleasure?'' was nominated for Album of the Year at the

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

. A reissue subtitled ''The Platinum Pleasure Edition'', was released on 11 June 2021 and preceded by the singles "Please" and "Hot n Heavy".

Background

After the promotional cycle for her previous album '' Glasshouse'', Ware felt pressured to quit music due to low album sales and her exhaustion with touring. However, Ware's podcast ''Table Manners'' gained a larger following of 13 million listeners and soon became Ware's main priority. Speaking to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', Ware described the podcast's success as a "turning point" that changed her outlook of herself: "I suddenly felt more comfortable in my skin." With the podcast, Ware discusses more personal topics that she felt forced to publicise with her music. Upon the announcement of the release of the album in February 2020, Ware described the album as a "two-year labour of love", further citing the album as her visions of "escapism ndgroove". The twelve tracks on ''What's Your Pleasure?'' move away from her usual "melancholy" sound in her previous releases, to focus on

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

, and

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

. With Ford co-producing the album, Ware intended to pay homage to what the duo called "wedding jams", along with the soul of late American singer-songwriter

Minnie Riperton Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You" and her four octave D3 to F7 coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use o ...

, and the New York underground disco scene.

Release

''What's Your Pleasure?'' was initially scheduled to be released on 5 June 2020; however, the date was moved to 19 June due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Ware then announced that she would be pushing the release date back another week so as not to conflict with

Juneteenth Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Deriving its name from combining "June" and "nineteenth", it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, i ...

. The album was released on 26 June 2020, making it her first major release since '' Glasshouse'' (2017), and subsequently her first release after giving birth to her second child. Music videos were released for the title track, "Soul Control", "Step into My Life", "In Your Eyes", and "The Kill". The cover art for the record sees Ware sport red lipstick, a black shirt and a golden necklace, with ''Pitchfork'' calling it a "spitting image" of Polaroids taken by American artist

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

of former actress

Bianca Jagger Bianca Jagger (born Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías; 2 May 1945)

. On 8 January 2021, Ware confirmed the forthcoming release of a deluxe edition of the album on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Just before the album's release, Ware announced that she would embark on her UK eponymous headline tour, starting in April 2021. Ware promoted the album through virtual performances, aired by several television programs, due to the

. ''What's Your Pleasure'' features elements of

post-disco Post-disco (also called boogie, synth-funk, or electro-funk) is a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history circa 1979–1985, imprecisely beginning with an unprecedented backlash against disco music in the United States, leading to c ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

Italo disco Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the early 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, p ...

Hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

, electro, new wave,

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

, R&B,

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

chamber folk Folk baroque or baroque guitar, is a distinctive and influential guitar fingerstyle developed in Britain in the 1960s, which combined elements of American folk, blues, jazz and ragtime with British folk music to produce a new and elaborate form o ...

, and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

. On 11 June 2021, a reissue subtitled ''The Platinum Pleasure Edition'' was released, with an original cover art in greyscale with a metallic silver background. The lead single from the ''Platinum Pleasure'', "Please", was released on 28 April 2021.

Critical reception

''What's Your Pleasure?'' received widespread critical acclaim. It was praised for its "disco-inspired" sound and cited as the singer's "finest" work. Ware earned praise for "going back to where she started" and for sounding "bolder, looser" compared to her previous releases. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 84, based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Aggregator

AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...

gave ''What's Your Pleasure?'' 8.3 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Tara Joshi of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised the upbeat nature of ''What's Your Pleasure?'' and compared it to other "grown-up disco" albums like

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

's ''

Chromatica ''Chromatica'' is the sixth studio album by American singer Lady Gaga, released on May 29, 2020, by Interscope Records and subsidiary Streamline. Gaga supervised the production with longtime collaborator BloodPop and a variety of other producer ...

'' and

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Bil ...

's ''

Honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

''. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' editor Hannah Mylrea claimed the album was a return to Ware's club roots, which she had strayed away from since her debut ''

Devotion Devotion or Devotions may refer to: Religion * Faith, confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept * Anglican devotions, private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians * Buddhist devotion, commitment to religious observance * Cat ...

'', and called it "an intoxicating cocktail of seductive beats, exhilarating choruses and sleek production." Owen Myers of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' complimented the album's musical references to disco divas of the past like

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

, and

Anita Ward Anita Ward (born December 20, 1956 or 1957) (sources differ) is an American singer and musician from Memphis, Tennessee. Beginning her professional music career in the late 1970s, Ward is best known for her 1979 million-selling chart-topper R&B/ ...

and awarded it the website's Best New Music distinction. Myers remarked positively on Ware's commitment to making uplifting music while allowing "a little of her signature psychodrama to creep into the nocturnal escapades she describes, and the flecks of ennui make the highs even higher." Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

singled out "Mirage (Don't Stop)" as a highlight, praising the

Bananarama Bananarama are an English pop duo from London, formed as a trio in 1980 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Fahey left the group in 1988 and was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan until 1991, when the trio became a duo. Thei ...

-influenced production, as well as praising the production of the album as a whole. Kellman also praised the "

" of the album's closer "

Remember Where You Are "Remember Where You Are" is a song by English singer and songwriter Jessie Ware. It was released on 5 February 2021 as the seventh & final single from her fourth studio album, ''What's Your Pleasure?'' The song was written by Ware and its producer ...

", calling it a "stirring finale". In July 2020, ''What's Your Pleasure?'' was included on ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

''s list of the best albums of 2020 so far.

Accolades

Commercial performance

According to the

Official Charts Company The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...

, ''What's Your Pleasure?'' was the most downloaded album over the weekend upon its initial release on 26 June 2020. The album eventually debuted at number three on both the

and

, giving Ware her fourth consecutive top-ten entry on the former and her first top-three entry on both. By this, the album became Ware's highest peak position on both charts, surpassing the number five peak and number twenty-six peak achieved by her debut album, ''

'' (2012). The album is also Ware's first top-forty entry on the Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) chart since ''

Tough Love Tough love is the act of treating a person sternly or harshly with the intent to help them in the long run. Description Bill Milliken described tough love through the expression, "I don't care how this makes you feel toward me. You may hate m ...

'' (2014), debuting at number thirty-six. It was also her first release to spend more than one week within the top ten of the UK Albums Chart, as it reached number seven upon its ''Platinum Pleasure'' re-release on 11 June 2021, nearly one year after its original release.

Track listing

Notes

* signifies an additional producer * The song "Mirage (Don't Stop)" contains elements of the song " Cruel Summer" performed by

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''What's Your Pleasure?''

Musicians

– vocals * James Ford – keyboards, percussion, programming ; synths ; guitar, bass, drums *

Dave Okumu David Jairus Ochieng Okumu (born 12 October 1976 in Vienna, Austria) is a singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist, best known for fronting the band The Invisible. Their debut album, released in March 2009, was nominated for a Mercury Prize ...

– guitar * Leo Taylor – drums * Shungudzo – backing vocals * Danny Parker – backing vocals * Bim Amoako – backing vocals * Senab Adekunle – backing vocals *

– programming * Midland – synths, programming *

– keyboards, programming * Adam Bainbridge – keyboards, programming * Clarence Coffee Jr. – backing vocals *

Jules Buckley Jules Buckley (born 8 January 1980) is an English conductor, composer, and arranger. Personal Buckley was born and grew up in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in the UK. He is the son of Keith Buckley (a doctor) and Joan Buckley, and attended Ayle ...

– string and brass arrangements, conducting * Tom Pigott-Smith (leader), Lizzie Ball, Marianne Haynes, Laura Melhuish, Kate Robinson, Charlie Brown, Nicky Sweeney, Jeremy Isaac, Hannah Dawson, Oli Langford – violins * Vicci Wardman, Helen Kamminga, Reiad Chibah – violas * Ian Burdge, Chris Worsey, Katherine Jenkinson – cellos * Richard Pryce – double bass *

Richard Watkins Richard Watkins (born 1962) is a horn player. He performs as a concerto soloist and chamber music player. He was Principal Horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra from 1985 to 1996, a position he relinquished to devote more time to his solo career ...

, Nigel Black – French horns * Tom Walsh, Louis Dowdeswell, Andy Wood – trumpets, flugelhorns * Callum Au –

tenor trombone A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widel ...

* Dave Stewart –

bass trombone The bass trombone (german: Bassposaune, it, trombone basso) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to ...

Technical

* James Ford – production, recording ; mixing * Morgan Geist – production * Joseph Mount – production, recording * Adam Bainbridge – production *

– production *

– production * Midland – additional production *

Joe LaPorta Joseph J. LaPorta (born ) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-laporta-mn000199340/credits/date-asc/ Career Born and raised in New York, LaPorta graduated from New York Univer ...

– mastering * Billy Foster – engineering assistance * Matt Jaggar – engineering assistance * Lewis Jones – string and brass recording * George Oulton – engineering assistance

Artwork

Mat Maitland Mat Maitland is an English art director and visual artist who lives in London. He is renowned for his photo collage works and for co-creating numerous music mascots for music artists because of his creative direction, including the "seafox" for ...

– creative direction * Dan Sanders – commission, creative * Rory Dewar – artwork * Carlijn Jacobs – photography * Suzanne Beirne – set design

Charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Jessie Ware albums Albums postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Disco albums by English artists Funk albums by English artists Post-disco albums PMR Records albums Virgin EMI Records albums