Jessie Ware – Please
Does exactly what it says it’s going to do.
[Video][Website]
[8.43]
Leah Isobel: This is just “Imagine It Was Us, pt. 2: The Re-Imagining,” and the fanservice cherry on top of a fanservice album era. I am a fan, so I feel seen!
[8]
Alfred Soto: This special edition track offers yet another rearranging of the dance tropes that Jessie Ware has mastered: a handclap, a bass sequencer, backing vocals, a whisper. That’s all it takes. Yet other artists come up with agreeable but thump-less material. She could’ve called this track “What’s Your Pleasure” — too bad she used the title on an even thumpier thumper.
[7]
Dorian Sinclair: I find deluxe reissues often don’t justify their existence — even if the extra songs are good, a lot of the time they don’t feel like they’re adding anything new to the album. “Please,” though, surprised me. What’s Your Pleasure was slick, alluring, and eminently danceable, but it was also very very polished in a way that sometimes felt remote. “Please” keeps the sleekness, but adds a sense of play that the album often lacked. Those descending pings and twangs, the shifting echo of the background vox, and the frank weirdness of the outro riffs all combine to give it a spontaneity and looseness I find deeply appealing. I know they’re placed as meticulously as anything off the original album, but it feels like anything could happen, and I’m happy to be along for the ride.
[8]
Ian Mathers: My last Jessie Ware blurb here was partially about the fact that she seemingly always registers as a [7] for me. I don’t know if it’s just (“just”) how good a time everyone seems to be having, even before you can hear the laughter and whoops in the back, but she’s really throwing off the curve for me.
[8]
Samson Savill de Jong: This sounds like a rip-off of a song I can’t name, with its bouncing synths and its little guitar runs and its AIaiyais and the echoing pleases that pop up all over the soundscape. After careful consideration, I’ve decided it’s not because this is generic sounding, it’s because this sounds timeless, like it has always existed and Jessie Ware just happened to put it up on Spotify to remind the rest of us about it. If that’s too roundabout way of saying it, I like this song a lot, although I do have quibbles with the end. I tend to find putting “chatting people having fun” sound effects in songs a little corny, and I don’t think it was needed here, and then the song just sort of dissipates right at the end, which is unsatisfying (this might’ve been one of the few songs that could’ve justified fading out). Still, these don’t really detract from the majority of the song, which is a delight.
[9]
Edward Okulicz: The click and the clap of the beats give me a feeling like I’ve just executed a particularly stylish move in the club. Ware’s chorus is stuffed full of feeling; the desirous backing vocals hint at both her demand and the reward for complying. I don’t think there’s ever enough of this music in the world.
[9]
Michael Hong: You don’t go to the club to find love — but luckily, that’s not what Jessie Ware’s trying to do. She’s already got someone, which is why you don’t hear it — the caution, the shame, a confession. “Please” is teasing, flirting the way “What’s Your Pleasure?” did. Perhaps not as suggestive, yet just as playful, surrendering herself to the moment and to another. But Ware looks further into the future, and unlike What’s Your Pleasure?, “Please” needs to give a reason why the party shouldn’t end. As such, everything hits harder: rubbery synths are more elastic, squiggles are brighter, and Ware throws a vocal performance that’s even richer. “I could be the girl of your dreams,” she sings, before shouting the word “dreams” with violent adoration. Ware keeps the tension high until she’s ready to bounce, the thrill of the chase too much to resist. “I’ll give you a little if you give me a little,” she teases, leading you out the back door and into the cab to whoops and giggles. Being sweet just feels so damn good.
[10]
Love the high score and love that everyone’s having a good time in their blurbs!