Feels Good!is out April 28 from EMI/Interscope.
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A roller disco seemed within the comfort zone of newly minted dance divaJessie Ware.
Its been years since the singers Rollerblading days with her husband, and shes admittedly out of practice.
Dont make me go back out there, she says, already unlacing her skates after 30 minutes.
Her fourth album,Whats Your Pleasure?
For her latest effort, the loose and boisterousThat!
Feels Good!,Ware says she wasnt pushed to make the same album twice.
But, she adds, Im not stupid.
I know what works.
The question became how to follow its path without retreading it.
Ware found the answer inPleasureclosing track Remember Where You Are.
(It madeObamas annual favorites list.)
Now that her music could make people two-step, she started reaching for a more emotional connection, too.
I wanted everyone to feel like they could sing it in the room together, Ware says.
That sense of togetherness with soul and groove and musicality.
Each of them would sing Away in a Manger in a different style.
Wares was jazz, but she performed it like a dirge: head down, no eye contact.
She got the solo and many afterward with the encouragement of her music teacher.
When I call John famous in the U.K., Jessie says hes just very respected in journalism.
She began appearing on dance and electronic tracks forSBTRKTandSampha.
PMR Records fell forWares heady yet subdued voiceand signed her.
As her success grew, her team saw an opportunity.
I was like, Theres an Adele.
I wanted to take the control back, I think, she says.
Ive never really had the control.
Even arguments stay in the final cut.
Thats podcast gold, Ware says.
Making dance music became a release from managing the podcast and raising two children.
(In real life, Ware is married to her childhood sweetheart.
My husbands constantly like, Babe, they must think we are wild in bed, she says.
Im like, Let them think!)
When Ware releasedPleasurein June 2020, that sense of fantasy resonated especially with the queer community.
Seeing drag queens lip-sync to her songs, includingPleasures dazzling opening track, Spotlight, became her greatest joy.
Feels Good!indulges in camp.
I mean, I am a mother, but its a double entendre, she says.
It was a wink.
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