Jessie Ware - Devotion


I'd intended upon reviewing this prior to its Mercury Prize nomination but my inscrutably backdated list of albums prevented me from doing so (hence September reviews of June releases), so now it looks like I've followed a trend when I CANNOT STRESS HOW MUCH THAT WASN'T THE CASE.

26-year old Ware, a London popstar who found her fame thanks to a guest spot on SBTRKT single Nervous back in 2010, has put out an unexpectedly successful debut (#5 in the UK album charts) featuring production from Kid Harpoon (Florence + the Machine's Shake it Out; Never Let Me Go) and the Invisible (Adele's Rolling in the Deep; Kate Nash's Pumpkin Soup), so perhaps some hidden awareness of production credits has put her into the limelight. I shouldn't, of course, detract from her success without analysing the album first.


First impressions that the title track give us are of a slow, intimate nature. Ware's vocals are hushed and somewhere hidden amongst the track's gentle, simmering beats, and for all of its virtues oddly sits as one of the least memorable tracks from the album. Comparatively, the single 'Wildest Moments' leaps straight off the same page of dance-pop ballads as the likes of Emeli Sande's My Kind of Love and boasts a pretty memorable chorus, but personal exposure to the song every 5 minutes on TiVo has slightly numbed its effect on me. For others, however, I'm sure it continues to thrive. The slightest of early house influences surface on 'Running', an almost Moroder instrumental that sees Ware use admittedly basic butterflies-in-your-stomach lyrics, but they're delivered with an honest subtlety that's intriguing. "Will you treat me like I know you should?", Ware yearns on 'Still Love Me', a pretty average mid-tempo piece that serves well as a filler but offers little else.

On many occasions the lyrics sound like wrought soundbites - "who says no to love?" is the refrain on 'No to Love' - but, like this track, are surrounded by fantastic production and given enough weight and patience to embed itself in its listeners' consciousness. There are shades of New Order here and there; really pressure-cooker stuff. "I could be falling to pieces" is one of many trite verbal inclusions on 'Night Light' again superseded by its quiet storm basslines and chords. The synths employed on 'Swan Song' inbetween chorus and verse are gorgeous but sadly just great interludes in a slightly dragging song. Contrarily, 'Sweet Talk' is a fantastic piece of 80s bubblegum-pop nostalgia, with drawn-out summery chords and a fun, bouncy tune.

Although it'd be easy to just settle for chillwave and sensual pop music, Ware is willing to take risks. The opening samples and much faster pace of '110%' really pay off, and inject a new vibrancy into the album, as she vows to "keep the dancefloor warm". She's also able to steal the show with just her voice - the drowning love metaphors of 'Taking in Water' may possibly sound tedious sung by the more throatier of the UK's female popstars (see: Leona Lewis), but Ware is careful not to over-egg it. All she seeks in 'Something Inside' is a "place to hide", something universal in its escapism but, in its breathy repetitions and melancholy, stays moving and engaging.



Most critics have stated that Devotion is an album that wraps itself around your ears and lingers on for much longer than the running time; I can see where they're coming from. Tracks are understated and, at risk of occasional boredom (that some tracks certainly are guilty of at times), hesitant to blast straight into pop music. For now I'm not blown away, but I get the distinct impression that this could be 2012's biggest grower.

Rating: 7.5/10
Highlights: No to Love, 110%, Wildest Moments, Running, Sweet Talk
Avoid: Swan Song

Artwork Watch: Her hair looks like a penis wearing a cockring.
For fans of: HURTS, Clare Maguire, Ms. Dynamite
Up next: The xx 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues, a review

Image
In 2008 the Fleet Foxes launched onto the music scene with their eponymous debut, landing themselves #1 positions in end-of-year reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, The Times and Mojo. Their unique brand of baroque-fused folk struck a chord with many, and the time has now come for them to follow that success up. In May they will release 'Helplessness Blues', the title track for which they recently released as a free download. The opening track 'Montezuma' is a slow repeat of their signature sound - the version I have unfortunately riddled with a few technical glitches - a minimalist and pensive reflection on life and impending death. In dirth or in excess /Both the slave and the empress/ Will return to the dirt I guess/ Naked as when they came. There's a slight rockabilly tune to 'Bedouin Dress', a slight threat to Robin's claim that the record will be "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". The groove is certainly here, a Garfunkelia
Read more

Lady GaGa - ARTPOP

Image
Ah, the Lady GaGa album cycle. It's rivalled only by the surfacing of a celebrity's nudes in the "what gets the gays riled up" stakes, and is subject to a hideous level of hyperbole, high expectations and Germanotta's own unmistakeable hubris. This time around she's stretched as far as vowing to be the actual first popstar to perform in space (many have claimed they will, but apparently she actually will), has made a typically overstated cameo in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills , and gone down the gimmicky app route that Bjork and Jay Z did to varying results (Bjork's was innovative and interesting, Jay's was done for a deal with Samsung, go figure). GaGa herself has clumsily tread between the two: her own app appeared to be free, as she probably intended, but now something's popped up, most likely thanks to the label, with O2 that charges consumers £1 a week to listen to it a week earlier than its release date. This careless slipping be
Read more

Icona Pop - Icona Pop

Image
Although usually condusive of a bemused shrug (honestly, I swear some of their featured musicians are made up), the 'Best New Track' feature of Pitchfork occasionally throws up something surprising and instantly loveable: I Don't Care by Icona Pop was just one of them. So when this was also recommended by Popjustice, and given my desperate attempts to immerse myself in pop music and simultaneously be cool, I hopped aboard the bandwagon with gusto. And you know what? I love it. That phenomenal single aside, Sweden's newest pop sensations have, off the back of their international (modest) success, find themselves yet to take over the UK or States. Let's hope, then, that they're not doomed to an embarrassing record label drop and future solo efforts on the X Factor (in the same vein as Mini Viva , who had equally brilliant but tragically-ignored singles) or a series of delayed release dates of album #2 ( VV Brown ). The album, however, seeks to buck the
Read more