If It Feels Good, Do It…
The pandemic era’s queen of the (socially distanced) dancefloor is back with another, even disco-ier set of tracks to burn down the ghost of Studio 54.
That! Feels Good!
Jessie Ware
Disco / Dance-Pop
As we all know, 2020 was an utterly miserable year, the only highlights of which were Orange Julius hilariously melting after losing an election, and Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure?, a glorious romp through Italo-disco and retro-dance-pop.
But if that was too subtle for you, That! Feels Good! is here in fabulous form to yank all the wallflowers out onto the middle of a backlit dancefloor. What Pleasure lacked in varied instrumentation, Feels Good provides in almost-suffocating abundance: strings, trumpets, pianos, oh my!
“Free Yourself” pulls a “9 to 5” piano opening into a bombastic queer anthem that hasn’t been seen since the halcyon days of early-90’s house mixes. The back end of track actually includes a brilliant mash-up of the two styles, maintaining the disco instrumentation while turntable-ing Jessie’s voice and samples of backing vocals.
Lead single “Pearls” leans even further into the disco tropes: wood blocks, chimes, and funk basslines proliferate the full runtime. If you told people this song came out in 1976, no one would bat an eye, and its call to dance your cares away is welcome is any era.
“Hello Love” is a great cooldown ballad that combines a vintage soul sound, with its ornate string arrangements, and a groovy, R&B-influenced beat. It also features some of Jessie’s more clever lyrics as she sings about seeing an ex for the first time in a long time, and falling for them all over again.
The instrumentation of single “Begin Again,” is beyond cinematic, with its immense choirs of backing vocalists, Bond-esque beats and chord stabs, and use of a full orchestra; this track is a colossus. Meanwhile, “Freak Me Now” sees Jessie creating a classic 90’s house bop, a wonderfully surprising switch up to shouted diva vocals and entirely synthetic backing compared to the album’s surrounding sound.
Closer “These Lips” is a great way to tie up the album with a groovy, sensual bow, bringing back the massive string sections and giant choruses that are absent in much of the second half of Feels Good. Fantastically arranged horns serve as the perfect guide between sections of the song, which serves as the thesis statement for a record about owning one’s sexuality and embracing the beauty of self-confidence.
That! Feels Good! does just that, full to the brim with warm vibes, danceable basslines, and rump-rattling hooks. Jessie Ware proves once again why she is the queen of disco revival, a niche that difficult to get exactly right, but that she just keeps nailing. In a genre where so many others have deigned to tread, Jessie dares.
