Hi everyone, Bigthony Bloomtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Jessie Ware album, Superbloom.

Here we have the newest and sixth LP from UK singer and songwriter Miss Jessie Ware, someone who continues to solidify this really impressive comeback that she has been on for several-plus years now. But when I first heard Jessie's voice and music spans back much further than that, like all the way to the early 2010s when I recall her appearing on really incredible singles with the likes of SBTRKT, Disclosure, also Nicki Minaj.

That last one was more of a Pinkprint deep cut, but either way, outside of these tracks and a handful of really great singles, Jessie's core catalog never really quite took off that much – or at least it wasn't garnering the kind of movement that you would need for a long-term career. And as she confirmed with me in an interview years ago, this kind of led her to start developing what would be her "final" album, the project that would kind of be a last hurrah of whatever the hell she wanted to do before she bowed out for good.

And that record would be 2020's What's Your Pleasure?, an immaculately written, produced, and performed collection of songs that celebrated all of these different shades of '70s dance-pop and disco, with of course some touches of boogie and synth-funk and house and freestyle as well. It was not only my album of the year that year, but many others too. And the record was just so good and so surprising that it created this newfound interest in Jessie and her music. And this was a demand that she was only happy to meet with a subsequent tour, a follow-up album, That! Feels Good!.

Is this album, in my opinion, as good as What's Your Pleasure? No, but also, like, few albums are. But this still was a very quality, admirable attempt at delivering a second helping of dance tunes with songwriting and production that was a bit more streamlined and punchy, maybe in order to attain that commercial success that Jessie had always been kind of, like, angling for. And the record certainly dished out some bangers like "Free Yourself" and "Pearls," tracks that I still love to hear to this day. And with this new record here, Jessie is working once again with familiar faces like James Ford and Stuart Price, pulling once more from dance esthetics of the 1970s.

But Jessie is not looking to keep it as simple this time around like she did on That! Feels Good! And the person mainly helping her do that is Mr. Barney Lister, who is known for his classic-sounding soul-style production, which has helped artists like Celeste as well as Olivia Dean, which has now also resulted in an album that is worthy of the title Superbloom. Because this record really does sound like a sprawling field of wildflowers, embracing the space, layers, and theatrical dynamics of this dance music era in a way that Jessie hasn't quite before, like, in this specific way.

Look no further than the super dramatic piano ballad "16 Summers," or the super flowery, showy interlude pieces, or the song "Don't You Know Who I Am," whose chorus soars with a melody and string-kissed chord progression that's a little similar to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." I mean, I would call it a very conscious nod, honestly, with deeper cuts to back this song up that seem like an homage to the likes of Diana Ross, as well as Donna Summer a bit, too.

As Jessie continues to do albums like this one, it's just interesting to find how deep her love and appreciation of this style and era of dance music runs. Because it says something that every album so far, again, pulls comes from a similar time period but doesn't have exactly the same kind of sound and makeup. Because this time around, Jessie obviously continues to pull from old-school dance music, but does it in a way where she's really testing her vocal chops with more nods to Philly soul and pop-soul, Motown, while also bringing back some of the quirky electro elements that made What's Your Pleasure? so fun to listen to as well. And all of this culminates into a series of super smooth, lovely tunes with high libido, some flirty, campy bits too, that are all elevated by some fantastic arrangements and string layers.

And, once again, Jessie Ware really meeting the moment vocally too. Whether it's on one of the lead singles to this record, "I Could Get Used to This," which has all the markings of a perfect disco anthem – even a really sweet key change in the second half – or the title track, whose arrangements somehow reach even higher highs of ecstasy. The intro on "Automatic" is a little heavy-handed, yes, but it's still a pretty solid, soul-inspired dance tune as well. I would have either nixed that start or somehow made the instrumental maybe just a bit weirder or more over-the-top and theatrical, to sort of match the energy the track kicks off with. Regardless though, the transition into the track "Chariots of Love Interlude" is absolutely flawless.

And as we transition into the midpoint of the album, this for me is really where the record comes alive because we start hearing more of those electro influences and those synthesizers begin to seep in, in a big way, and I think Jessie's personality starts to come through more with lots of playful and over-the-top lyrics.

Whether it's on the song "Sauna," where she demands stamina, saying "If you wanna last longer / I don't need faster / I need stronger / Take it to the sauna," a track that's set to not only some really epic synth chords but a super determined groove, too. There's also "Mr Valentine," which might be my favorite on the album, a track that's packed with these girly vocal pop layers that are super campy and breathy, a raw, dancey bassline that sounds like something off of an ESG track. But then these verses are contrasted with these super rich, beautiful flourishes of harmonies and strings. And then the last leg of the song is this really great jam with some wild touches of guitar and percussion, a lot of hootin' and hollerin'. The energy is killer.

And then there's the song "Ride," which not only features some super killer synth bass and sequence claps, but I'm loving these smooth synth patches and what feels like some, uh, kind of funny Euro-pop style lead melodies too. Not to mention Jessie's lyrics on here, which again are just like very silly, very flirty, very tongue-in-cheek: "Oh, come on and ride my love / giddy up, giddy up, giddy up." This track has the exact kind of formula that you would expect to hear on, like, a really obscure, vintage 12-inch dance pop single from way back in 1981, and labeled as an artist you've never heard of before in your entire life.

As far as the final leg of the record is concerned, it's pretty strong in my opinion. "16 Summers," I mentioned earlier, is a great ballad. Fantastic vocal performance, killer pianos on it, and it's a very moving tune about motherhood and the short span of time that you really have to kind of like enjoy your kids being kids. And then I would say the closing track, while not this over-the-top grandiose moment of finality, is another banger on the tracklist and ends things off in this sort of very positive, leave-them-hungry, cliffhanger sort of way. I mean, the song literally is about sort of Jessie demanding more, over another fusion of electro and disco that she just just continues to do fantastically. Also loving the French-y refrains all over the track too, which just contribute even more to the track's personality.

And there you have it, Jessie Ware just continues to smash it out of the park with this style of music, and is still doing disco more justice than most artists out there currently, with super fun, sexy songs, great production, and somehow continues to pull it off in a way to where it doesn't feel merely like an exercise in nostalgia.

I will add to all of this though, I do have some minor criticisms of the record. Like, for as good as Jessie's vocal performances are on the more straightforward soul cuts on this thing, these tracks are more often than not the most typical sounding cuts on the entire project. It's also not her most consistent tracklist, that's for sure, especially with "16 Summers." And as much inspiration as Jessie has found going in this direction, I wonder how much further she could really push it and continue to dig gold out of it.

Still, I am loving the vast majority of tracks on this album for sure, which is why I'm feeling a decent 8 on this album.

Anthony Fantano. Jessie Ware. Forever.