Last year, Jessie Ware reset her sound at the exact right time. What’s Your Pleasure? the British singer asked in the title of her fourth album, and answered her own question with the irresistibly joyful club-pop grooves inside. It was a smart move, steering Ware back to her rightful place at the center of the dancefloor when we all needed some disco relief — and a year later, we can thank the great glittering mirrorball in the sky that she’s not ready to call it a night just yet.
“Please,” the first single from an upcoming deluxe edition of What’s Your Pleasure?, takes the album’s excitable energy and turns it up even higher. “I wanna be next to you, gotta be next to you,” Ware sings invitingly. This is a song that takes place in an imaginary world — “I want a place/Where golden moments last forever” — which makes sense, given that all sweaty, crowded club situations are purely theoretical these days. And as we’ve learned by now, that electric fantasy realm is somewhere Ware can really shine.
On a musical level, “Please” is a stunner. Produced by Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford and co-written by Ware with Ford, Shungudzo, and Danny Parker, it’s got a juicy bassline, bright, bubbly synths, and all kinds of instrumental flourishes and background vocals sparkling in and out of the mix. Ware makes the most of it, giving a cooly virtuosic performance that covers her full range, from a breathy spoken-word moment (“Do you need company?”) to a chorus that makes flirting in the dark sound radiantly utopian (“If you please me, please me/We can make it mutual”). It all falls into place, every element in the track reflecting back the eagerness in Ware’s voice.
“‘Please’ is full of optimism and ready to be played in a place where we can all be together and flirt, dance, touch, and kiss,” she said in a press statement. When that will happen is hard to say, though she’s announced some U.K. dates for late 2021. Until she can bring her Pleasure machine to America, we’ll just have to keep this song in rotation.
Find a playlist of all of our recent Songs You Need to Know selections on Spotify.
From Rolling Stone US
