Album review: Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure? (Platinum Pleasure Edition)

So, I had no plans nor intention of reviewing the deluxe edition of What’s Your Pleasure?, officially titled The Platinum Pleasure edition. But here the fuck I am. Reviewing it. Because Jessica decided that it wasn’t enough to take my wig from me in 2020, but that she was gonna take it in 2021 too.

Bitch.

The Platinum Pleasure edition of What’s Your Pleasure? Features an additional 8 songs. 6 of which are new (at least to us), one of which is an old single and one of which is a remix to a song that I think many of us skipped on the original release. The thing to note with the 6 new songs is that they are new BRAND brand new, but recorded during the original sessions for What’s Your Pleasure? and left off. And why in some instances I completely understand the thought process of leaving certain songs off, I’m baffled as to why others were bumped in favour of others. Yes “Adore You” and “Mirage (Don’t Stop)”, I’m looking at’cho boring asses. Picking these two songs over “Please” and “Impossible” was a hate crime. I don’t give a fuck that either of them were released as singles, because that didn’t stop “Overtime” getting the chop, and “Spotlight” is widely seen as the lead single for What’s Your Pleasure? anyway.

The standard edition of What’s Your Pleasure? was already primed for a solid 35 minutes of dancing, with the exception of the dreary and far too slow “Adore You”. But other than that, you could shake the titties and the cakes from “Spotlight” all the way to “Remember Where You Are”. The Platinum Pleasure exclusive cuts follow in the same vein as the standard edition of the album, in that it’s dance heavy. But it comes with some slower moments too; letting fans know that the sensuality Jessie showed on her albums Tough Love and Glasshouse is still there, for better or for worse.

It’s clear as to why Jessie wanted to re-release What’s Your Pleasure? and share these album leftovers, because they’re all good. And in the midst of a pandemic and constant tragedy reminding us all of how fleeting and fragile life can be, we can’t be too precious about holding onto things in the hopes that ‘Maybe I’ll put this out in a few years’. The asteroid could hit. The plate could drop. Anything.

The Platinum Pleasure lead single “Please” is like a reimagined version of Jessie’s grossly overlooked 2012 single “Imagine It Was Us”. It has the high energy of “Soul Control”, but the playfulness of “Ooh La La”. You can’t listen to this song and not buss a two-step. It’s far too infectious to stay still to. “Impossible” is another high energy disco cut, and the song on the album with the highest BPM count. You can imagine everybody coked up and sweating out their wigs and jumpsuits to this in the club. The whole thing stinks of Studio 54 in the best possible way. It’s so fucking funky. It gives toot-toots, beep-beeps and bop-bops from start to finish. As much as I adore the original release of What’s Your Pleasure?, these songs being on the album would’ve bumped it up a level. Jessica made a mistake not including these, but she’s done right with including them on the re-release and making them a part of What’s Your Pleasure? canon.

The other songs however, I 100% get why they were chopped. “Eyes Closed” is a sexy little club jam with a bright and euphoric chorus. However it is very similar in vibe to the album title track “What’s Your Pleasure?”. And if I had to choose between “Eyes Closed” and “What’s Your Pleasure?”, I’m going for the latter every time. This isn’t a slight on "Eyes Closed”. It’s a great song. It’s just that “What’s Your Pleasure?” is THAT good and gives everything that “Eyes Closed” gives, but in a bigger, sexier and dirtier package. The slow songs “Pale Blue Light” and “0208” are both nice, and feel like throwbacks to her earlier albums. “0208” is a really sweet song about the early stages of Jessie’s relationship with her now husband, back when they were both teenagers. It’s very vibey and feels like it could sit on either Devotion or Tough Love. But we got a song dedicated to Jessie’s husband on Glasshouse with “Sam”, and again before that on Tough Love with “You & I Forever”. The narrative of the song also feels too hyper specific and lovey-dovey in contrast to the other songs on What’s Your Pleasure?, where there’s a greater sense of passion and fire. And the sappy (and I mean this endearingly) and slow vibe of the song would suck the energy out of the album, no matter where in the tracklist that you placed it. So it’s no wonder it didn’t make the cut. It’s a similar deal with “Pale Blue Light”, which truly sounds like a Glasshouse cut. Both songs feel like they were recorded at a point before What’s Your Pleasure? Fully started to take shape. They’re good songs, and Jessie’s vocals are far more centred on them than any of the other songs. But they’re the weakest of the bunch for me.

The 2018 single “Overtime” is also included here, and I feel in two minds about it. When I first reviewed What’s Your Pleasure? I said it was a shame that we never got “Overtime”. I cannot believe that between the three pre “Spotlight” songs Jessie had released, “Overtime” (the best of them) is the one that never made the cut, whilst “Adore You” and “Mirage (Don’t Stop)” did, and were easily the weakest songs on the album. BUT, in an earlier post when the idea of a re-release of What’s Your Pleasure? was being teased, I said that as much as I feel “Overtime” works on the album in its original form, a reworking of where it’s made to fit even better would go down a treat. The inclusion of “Overtime” is still welcomed though. It was released unannounced, with no promo, no music video, at a time when nobody was really looking to Jessie Ware for anything, and most probably forgot she even did music because she was making such a big name for herself as a podcaster. So it wouldn’t surprise me if even the most die-hard fans of What’s Your Pleasure? completely missed “Overtime” - making its inclusion here very worthwhile. There’s also a remix of “Adore You”, which has a really nice vibe and flips the song into something that sounds like it was made for an anime girl lo-fi playlist. It’s real nice, but it’s the one additional song that fits the least amongst the others.

What’s Your Pleasure? Was already a fantastic album, and Jessie just went and made it better. My biggest gripe is that the additional songs weren’t woven into the tracklist. Each of these songs could slot into the original tracklist somehow. Or I would have taken these new songs as a separate EP, as they’re sequenced pretty perfectly as such separate from the original tracklist anyway. I’m just really fussy and particular when it comes to deluxe edition tracks being slapped onto the end of albums, because I feel it does both the existing and new material a disservice. It creates this divide between them, when they easily could have been considered as a whole - especially when the additional material was recorded with the intention of being part of the original tracklist. But at the very least, we can do this ourselves.

As somebody who has followed Jessie Ware since Devotion, What’s Your Pleasure? was such an amazing moment as a fan. To really see her step into herself and accept the challenge of being the pop star she always wanted to be, but felt that she couldn’t be. The Platinum Pleasure edition of the album is Jessie realising that not only is she THAT bitch, but being THAT bitch is a whole lot of fun. She’s fully accepting and embracing the artist she’s become now and really basking in her light, and deservedly so. She released an incredible album that doesn’t erase the truth of what she released before, but honours the artist she became as a result of the journey she walked through each of those albums. As I’d mentioned in my initial review, it’s like Jessie came full circle. She started out as a dance artist, but without the confidence or the platform, and now she’s back to being a dance artist with all of the confidence and a far bigger platform. And she’s using her confidence and agency in this new phase of who she is and what she and her team have built, to extend the life of an album that she and her fans, old and new, are extremely proud of.

It’s a shame that What's Your Pleasure? has now released twice during periods where Jessie was not able to heavily promote the albums as much as she probably would've liked. First due to the fresh hit of the pandemic and now being pregnant during a pandemic. I personally feel that dropping the Platinum Pleasure edition of the album whilst she was on tour would have been a better look and given it more mileage. But with tour still being an uncertainty, and the way the past year and a half has panned out - I get why she said ‘Fuck it’ and released it now. Especially when fans were asking for it.

Toot-toot bitch. Toot-toot.

Verdict: Beep-Beep

Highlights (of the Platinum Pleasure exclusive songs only):
■ Please 🔥
■ Impossible 🏆
■ Eyes Closed
■ Overtime
■ Hot N Heavy
■ 0208 🔥