Review Summary: Feast on the apple, dine with the snake, and fall to your knees in prayer at the altar of sin. It's only human, after all.
When was the last time an album changed you? Have you ever felt the crevices of your heart or corners of your mind pried open through pure musical intervention? Had your preconceived notions on your self, your experiences, or your worth challenged on the grounds of pure sensation? Philosopher Bertrand Russel once stated that “of all forms of caution, caution in love is most fatal to true happiness;” if we are to treat him as our professor of passion, then Jessie Ware has fashioned herself a prophet.
If music can, in fact, act as medicine, then 'Superbloom' is a sexual opiate of peerless potency. It is a rare piece of sexually charged pop that - by means of sumptuous instrumentation, nostalgic composition, & earnest delivery – transcends the baseline impulses of its subject matter, selling the sexual experience as something truly transformative. In it, Jessie Ware not only audibly captures the sensations of sexual liberation, but preaches its practice as a gift for which all can be attuned, and all are deserving.
From the breathy falsetto of the lead single ‘I Could Get Used To This’ to the shuffling syncopation of ‘Mr Valentine’ you see Ware attacking the demons of doubt and chastity with her full suite of skills honed over decades of experience. The harmonic progression in ‘Superbloom’ feels precision engineered to tempt the ear and build listener anticipation – replete with tantalizing hooks built upon towering foundations of teasing open chords. All this craving for resolution: before dropping the listener at suspense’s peak – all to catch the audience’s ear with rhythmically locked in choruses. Tease, build, peak, drop, repeat.
All will be well. This, you deserve. Do not resist.
As always, Ware reminds us of her soul-gripping singing voice, leading the layers of baroque disco arrangement that surrounds her serenades, rather than being buried by them. She shifts her register masterfully from vintage vibrato to breathy falsetto, constantly selling the contrast, audibly reflecting the shifting patterns of power and submission that characterizes true sexual rhythm.
To come down from this gushing high: such praise does not apply to every track. There are more duds in this track list than her last two albums – but that isn’t saying much as the peaks are truly towering on this release. The character here is different from her earlier releases, despite her reputation for singing about sex, sex, and more sex. The face smacking hooks of “That! Feels! Good!” are less consistent on 'Superbloom,' and the romanticism of “What’s Your Pleasure” had a more personal, confessional quality that isn’t found here at 'Superbloom’s' velveteen altar.
None of this prevents 'Superbloom' from being an utterly captivating experience. The title track is her most harmonically sophisticated work to date. The lead vocals are granted a vibrancy and color that contrasts against the counter harmonies of her rich backing vocals. All confidently peaking at its devilishly syncopated bridge that simmers like the sexual id eager to escape the lead’s philosophizing ego: the biological and academic natures of sexuality duking it out in real time. These puzzle pieces play off of one another before cleverly snapping together into a jigsaw-like climax: audibly emulating the release that the prophet calls for.
This highfalutin language isn’t just for show: prophets, preaching, and sexual revelation. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has lived and loved with walls up and guarded. Drifting from year to year under the impression that love songs were ultimately rooted in abstraction – penned for some undefined “other.” That such romance and felt human connection is a mere myth, meant for someone more deserving.
This is where the magic happens. Through a relentlessly earnest character and unpretentious passion, 'Superbloom' tears down those walls. Leveraging phantasmagoria and affirmation it instills an honest belief in even the most jaded or guarded listener:
That you (yes, YOU) deserve love.
What is remarkable about ‘Superbloom’ isn’t how it revels in taboo sexuality, but the ways in which it strips such debauchery of its moral deviance through sheer warmth and affirmation. For anyone who has been plagued by demons of doubt or shame, Jessie Ware has delivered a revelation. And for anyone else: a richly colorful, if uneven, tapestry of sensual summertime bops.
Sex has never sounded so sweet.
