Jessie Ware - Free Yourself + That! Feels Good! (album 5)

Oh I love it. The verses work well for me (the second is particularly good - no retractions) as a counterpoint to the all out, full throttle chorus.
 
She really snapped in the Glastonbury performance of this, didn't she? I might prefer it to the studio version (which is also very good, let's not get it twisted but she's set the bar absurdly high for herself)

 
I think it's amazing as per.

What I love about Jessie is that unlike a lot of other big vocalists she understands the need for nuance and subtlety in her delivery.
 
And I properly dig the verses - they might be my favourite parts of the song.
 
I think she deserves extra credit for bringing said nuance and subtlety to a song co produced by Stuart Price!
 
This is fucking amazing I've now decided

@Jark she's done half a mil on Spotify (although about half of that was from the previous sales week), is this likely to be her highest opening week ever? She's definitely getting more support than she's used to anyway - she's Top 5 on the NMF playlists on both Spotify and Apple.
 
I see she managed to hit the Top 50 on downloads in last week's chart from just 2 days sales. She might yet crack the proper top 100 at this rate.
 
you need about 500k daily streams to make the Spoti 200. that ain't happening for an artist like Jessie!
 
Jark said:
you need about 500k daily streams to make the Spoti 200. that ain't happening for an artist like Jessie!
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Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody is #200 for the WEEK with 372k.
500k daily streams would get you #1 right now.

Do you mean 50k? #200 had 57k yesterday.
 
What relevance is GLOBAL to Jessie Ware? (Waning Polish success notwithstanding) :D

You just have to EMBRACE the fact she's chart poison, as unjust as it is.
 
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She's also fourth billed on this week's New Music Friday UK playlist, so the fact that she couldn’t even crack the 200 from there is pretty damning.
 
VoR said:
She's also fourth billed on this week's New Music Friday UK playlist, so the fact that she couldn’t even crack the 200 from there is pretty damning.
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it's actually not. that's quite normal. NMF has relatively little impact most of the time.
 
VoR said:
She's also fourth billed on this week's New Music Friday UK playlist, so the fact that she couldn’t even crack the 200 from there is pretty damning.
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If you look through the play counts of the first few listed (ignoring the international artists because the play counts are global) she’s actually doing very very well.

As we know these days only about 4 or 5 songs ever crack the Top 100
In their first week and they’re either hip hop songs which stick around for just a couple of weeks, or mega artists. Everything else has to slowly break through.
 
funky said:
If you look through the play counts of the first few listed (ignoring the international artists because the play counts are global) she’s actually doing very very well.

As we know these days only about 4 or 5 songs ever crack the Top 100
In their first week and they’re either hip hop songs which stick around for just a couple of weeks, or mega artists. Everything else has to slowly break through.
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Who are we comparing her to and what are their play counts?

The OCC really do need to do something about how stagnant the singles chart is. We've got more singles on the chart this week that have been there a year or more than there are new entries. Over 20% of the chart has been on it for more than six months.
 
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In order of Spotify NMF, ignoring US artists

Central Cee 3m :manson:
DBlock Europe 239k
Jessie Ware 544k (although she has about 2 days on everyone else and about 200k of that will count for last week sales)
Meduza 474k
Jamie T 83k
Bad Boy Chiller Crew 99k
You Me At Six 88k
Ms Banks 24k
Aluna 95k
David Guetta 224k


When you go further down, most British artists, including those supported by Radio 2 and Radio 6, are tiny numbers. Relatively speaking, she's doing really well. But her numbers are probably still below the likes of The Killers, Whitney Houston and other stickaround songs that get millions of plays every week.

Yeah you're right, they need a new music chart. It's not working.
 
I was a bit lukewarm on this but it finally clicked

katy perry wig GIF
 
I’m still in awe of the Glastonbury vocal. That is not an easy song to sing. The way she belts those difficult notes while bouncing round the stage - I cannot.
 
Yeah, I liked it to begin with in an 8.5/10-kinda way (aka a very good song) but now I'm actually giddy with excitement at the idea of seeing her perform it live.

DON'T TEASE ME!
 
Apologies if this has already been discussed but aren't we getting a video for this?
 
I assume they’re on the slow burn with this one - it hasn’t been added to radio yet which either suggests that it’s just a fun for the fans single before the real promo begins, or they’re holding off on radio until the video is ready and she can do some TV. It’s unusual for Jessie to get no radio airplay from a proper single, especially coming off the last album. I imagine her label will be more willing to invest than ever given her profile is bigger than it’s ever been, and the last album was universally praised / hit the Top 10 three times / went silver.
 
I think it was a mistake not to have the video ready on release to be honest, particularly following the hype built up with the last album. Jessie doesn't really benefit from breaks in momentum.
 
I agree, nor does she ever seem intent on playing the industry game and running a hard fast campaign. She does things at her pace and I think she might have just found a groove where she accepts she’s not Kylie and has found decent success and respect and a fan base. A lot of artists are going that way.
 
funky said:
I agree, nor does she ever seem intent on playing the industry game and running a hard fast campaign. She does things at her pace and I think she might have just found a groove where she accepts she’s not Kylie and has found decent success and respect and a fan base. A lot of artists are going that way.
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She's still the right side of 40. She has the potential to build on her (relative) success.

I suppose the fact that she has a young family is a significant factor in which case, fair enough.
 
Eddie said:
I think it was a mistake not to have the video ready on release to be honest, particularly following the hype built up with the last album. Jessie doesn't really benefit from breaks in momentum.
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She has absolutely no commercial momentum. WYP may have hit the Top ten three times (I believe the original release, a Graham Norton performance and the reissue) but on the first two occasions it had one more week in the top 100, and on the third didn't manage a single further week. It took two years to get to silver status. It failed to produce a single charting single.
 
I wonder if touring aside, the podcast is making her more money? She has her hands in lots of pies (literally) - I even have both her books!
 
I've no real idea how much money is in podcasting at that level. Surely if she's not making money out of it, hardly anyone is though - it's consistently high in the iTunes podcast charts, isn't it.

Are her books straight' cookbooks? I imagined they were a sort of mix of cookbook and food writing.
 
The podcast with ads/touring the podcast and brands sponsoring episodes and events is a very steady addition for her. I still think the podcast is a big reason why we got the music we got from her the past 2 years; she knows her audience better and it gave her more freedom to approach her music career a little differently. It sounds like she felt she'd been somewhat chewed up and spat out by the time "Glasshouse" was wrapped.
 
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yeah she's been pretty vocal about feeling very burned out by Glasshouse, the reception to it and the touring she did that era. she's said she could easily make her career/money off of the podcast alone which is what allowed her to return to music from the perspective of somebody with passion and zero commercial goals.

I don't know if Free Yourself has gone to radio but I'm imagining the second single will be more of a "song" / stronger contender for a big push.
 
@lolly with the cold hard facts there :(

I guess it’s all relative. Compared to Dua and Gaga she’s not commercial at all. But compared to contemporaries like Roisin Murphy, Bat For Lashes, Marina, Foxes, Little Boots, she’s doing bloody well and surely enough in this day and age for a steady career. Physical album sales aren’t the only income now outside of touring. Her streaming numbers aren’t bad and will provide a bit of cash on top.
 
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