I did not share by Apple Music year-end wrap-up thing with anyone this year, since my listening habits are never quite as interesting or eclectic as I want them to be. Also, does anyone really care what indie-famous artist I listened to the most? Anyways, That! Feels Good! by Jessie Ware was my most listened-to album of 2023, which isn’t all that surprising considering just how punchy and deliciously well-crafted the album is. It is quite simply the type of album that begs to be played over and over again, so I made a habit of it back when it came out in late Spring and served as a nice segue into the feel-good vibes of the Summer.
That said, I went quite a while without returning to this album, so I was a little skeptical as to whether this album would sound quite as good in the blistering cold of December as it did back in May when I made it a Little Pick. Surprisingly, this album still sounds as great if not greater than the last time it was in heavy rotation. Maybe the pristine pop sounds of it just fit in well with a lot of the modern Christmas pop music you hear this time of year, but there’s something infectious about walking the steam-laden city streets while bopping along to a banger like “Pearls” or a more sultry ballad like “Hello Love”.
The fact that I fell this hard for a Jessie Ware album was a bit of a surprise, since I’ve known of her for a while, and enjoyed her brand of classy Euro-pop enough, but it never quite blew me away. Maybe I’m just more open to dance music lately, or at least the kind of dance music that mines the past in search of modern perfection, like Beyonce’s Renaissance or Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. While this album may not have had the kind of pop culture impact that those records had, it does have the same sense of an artist just working with a lot of great popsmiths, and in the process, creating something transcendent, but also just a lot of damn fun.
Well, I think this will probably be the last of my music wrap-up posts, since I also have to get another episode of The Pick out in the midst of holiday travel. I wish I had gotten to do a few more of these, but oh well, I’ll have more to say about the year in music in my Top 10.
Favorite Tracks: “Free Yourself”, “Pearls”, “Shake The Bottle”