Oh no! Not another Adele, not another British female with a big voice who is gonna sell zillions albums in the US? Jessie Ware was having an in-store at Amoeba on Tuesday night and I expected a large crowd,… the crowd was effectively there, not overwhelming but still consequent enough to form a line outside the store.
With her long dark hair running free on her shoulders, a black dress and a flower shirt knotted around her waist, Jessie and her band only played six songs — a regular number for Amoeba — mostly off her debut album ‘Devotion’, but she was in fact celebrating the release of her new EP ‘If You’re Never Gonna Move‘, featuring some of the same songs, including a reworked version of ‘110%’ .
Sincerely, I am not a fan of her style of music, a mix of 90s R&B, 80s soul, light disco, turning into mellow ballads à la Sade with some occasional sampling, but I must admit Jessie had quite a warm and unassuming personality, smiling and waving at people, talking about her love for Amoeba and her recent apparition of Jimmy Fallon among other things. She was totally natural and bubbly, even announcing the titles of each of her songs with her cute and strong British accent. She was certainly no Lana del Rey (whom I saw at the same place a while ago) as she was leaving no mystery between her and us. And when we are on the subject of comparisons with big divas, Jessie Ware was certainly no Beyonce or Adele, if she gave us some moments to appreciate her powerful voice, she was elegantly holding it back most of the time,… something I can tolerate much more than the countless squalls usually going on with the genre.
Surrounded by three musicians, she never indeed overused her warm voice, and during many songs, the music was very lightly played, even in a minimalist sort of way, letting Ware’s dynamic vocals shine. There was a sort of nostalgia in all this, nostalgia for a retro soul-pop area, mixed with some more modern dance-electronica. And once again, there was no mystery in all this, as she affirmed even more her music inspirations by covering Bobby Caldwell’s ‘What You Wont Do For Love’, giving a soulful rendition of the song. Honestly, I find the original extremely passé, but Jessie Ware knew how to give it some second life.
The crowd was responding with enthusiasm at her rare vocal envolees and of course ‘Wildest Moments’ (a song she had already performed during her Fallon appearance) and ‘Running’, which involved a little more musical textures than the naked approach of some other songs, were acclaimed with fervor. I guess we will have to deal with Jessie Ware’s charm and talent, she just sold out the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, and her album isn’t even available in the US before April 2nd!
Setlist
Devotion
110%
Sweet Talk
What you won’t do for love
Wildest Moments
Running