Even before Jessie Ware’s album has been released, Paddy Power bookmakers have installed Devotion as one of the front runners in their betting odds for the Mercury Music prize, behind Alt-J, Florence & The Machine and Richard Hawley. Jessie certainly seems to have found favour with many of the critics and buzz blogs. We’re a little surprised about the blog positivity – not because Jessie doesn’t deserve it but because her music is more akin to a comforting warm duvet than the sort of semi-edgy underground cool that you’d expect those blogs to get excited about.
Jessie has recently filmed a Black Cab Session and the film allows her to demonstrate her soulful vocal chords and together with her band her lack of regard to health and safety legislation. Just where are their seat belts?
The hardened cynic could argue that whoever is working with Jessie Ware is almost trying too hard to gain her some sort of leftfield indie / club credibility when really her music sits more in the coffee table Brit-soul camp previously occupied by the likes of Shara Nelson, Sade, or Lisa Stansfield. There’s been a slow building buzz about Ware for some time now, through from performing backing vocals for Jack Penate and Man Like Me, to working with the likes of SBTRKT, Joker and Sampha (you may remember us posting Sampha and Jessie’s collaboration Valentine almost 1 year to the day here) and finding her music on all the ‘right’ blogs and sites such as Abeano and The Fader.
So when Ware revealed her video for her new solo single Running earlier today, the follow up to debut single proper Strange Feeling (which we posted here), it came as absolutely no surprise to find a whole bunch of blogs (which we’d loosely describe as the buzz blogs) eager to post the track just as fast as they could, caught up in the maelstrom of hype that has been gradually created.
Now if all this sounds rather cynical then surely the question you have to ask is ‘so why is Breaking More Waves posting the track?’
It’s really for one simple reason. We like Running. It reminds us a little of Soul II Soul and the aforementioned Shara Nelson, both of whom we like, coffee table worthy or not. We are particularly enamored with the late night downtempo production on the record and the way that Ware’s vocal is sexily sophisticated - the complete antithesis to some of the current crop of loudmouth wannabes such as Azealia Banks and Ke$ha. It’s nice to have a bit of class in music. Running is smooth and highly pleasurable and irrespective of blog buzz that will do for us.
Imagine the scene; a secluded dwelling owned by a playwright and writer, in a remote Scottish village. The intoxicatingly expensive red wine is flowing heavily whilst the writer and her friend are discussing books, music and art as the rain pounds down on the dark isolated streets outside.
This is the scene where Breaking More Waves finds itself right now. However, whilst we’re away the blog posts continue, including our usual weekly round up of songs that got away, on what we call The Saturday Surf. This week just 3 tracks – because as someone once said, 3 is the magic number. Or as someone else said, a threesome is my ultimate fantasy.
No Ceremony /// - Hurtlove (Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross remix)
First, this rather mournful and sad sounding remix of the mystery pianocore artist(es) No Ceremony/// and his / her /their track Hurtlove (that's a lot of // in this blog post) remixed by Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross -a side project of one Dexter Tortoriello. Reminiscent of something Brian Eno might have constructed this remix is placid, ambient and beautifully calming. It's free to download.
Next is Jessie Ware. We first stumbled across Jessie via her work with SBTRKT and then on a track called Valentine that she released in February with Sampha (who has also provided vocals for SBTRKT). Now she’s about to release her own single Strangest Feeling and it’s really rather good. With floaty soulful vocals, burbling dirty bass sounds and atmospheric electronics it’s a pretty persuasive argument for wanting to hear more from the lady as soon as possible.
Finally making up our trio of tracks is the new country smothered single from our favourite warm and dreamy Leeds based folk pop quintet, Ellen & The Escapades. Any band that sings a song called When The Tide Creeps In is always going to get at least a degree of love from a blog edited by someone who has the word sea both in English and French in their surname (Seamer), writes a blog called Breaking More Waves and lives by the coast. However even if this song had been called It’s Time To Get The Fragrant Chicken Stock You Made Last Week Out Of The Freezer Darling And Called Me Stavros, we’d still love it, although maybe not quite as much.
Happy Valentine’s day. Remember love is for 356 days a year not just 1 and other such wise words. Blah, blah, blah. And don’t worry if you didn’t receive any Valentine’s cards – it just means that nobody loves you.
We brought you the stream of this song over the weekend, now Jessie Ware and Sampha have released this neat little video for the tune, which suits the minimal music perfectly. Make this your Valentine, there’s no bad romance here.
“If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it,” seems to be the most appropriate quote to use around this time, because in case you’ve forgotten Monday is Valentine’s day. Not sure what to do for your loved one this year ? Then why not treat them to something different from chocolates, flowers or a romantic candlelit dinner ? Instead kiss their ears with this piece of delicate spacey adoration by Jessie Ware (not Jessie J) who you may have heard providing guest vocals on Nervous by SBTRKT. This time she's working with cool dude Sampha. It’s called (quite simply) Valentine and we must have played it at least fifteen times over on repeat since we first heard it. Simple electronic ballerina backing and perfect vocals, it’s certainly not full of excess, but is still feeds us with love.
It’s out on Young Turks on heart shaped vinyl (see picture here) and you can purchase it to buy now (here). If like us you're going to see Glasser on her UK tour soon, you can catch Sampha there. But for now enjoy this moment of tranquil perfection. Smoochy.
