Album Review
Jessie Ware - Superbloom
Clean is currently in the Netherlands where the sun is shining bright and the shorts are finally taken from the bottom shelf to see the light of day again. To match the early summer feeling, we’re naturally drawn to music that brings the same sunshine through your headphones. We’re craving music that makes us want to dance, but also something that captures those flirty, sexy vibes the sun brings out in us. To match that energy, we simply have to blast Jessie Ware through our speakers. Jessie released her sixth studio album Superbloom last week — an album we’ve been looking forward to ever since its announcement. We’ve been huge fans of the singer ever since her iconic release Devotion. What started as gloomy indie-pop has slowly evolved into a more funky, disco-inspired sound, as heard on her latest successes What’s Your Pleasure? and That! Feels Good!. Both bodies of work are still on repeat for Clean — they’re simply iconic, and Jessie seems to have truly found her sound with them. It’s no surprise that Superbloom continues in the same lane. Stepping into the album, it’s clear we’re following a strong overall theme. The prelude sets the scene: imagine velvet red curtains opening onto a romantic, cinematic setting filled with beautiful flowers, almost like a secret garden made for goddesses only. The tone is set for what’s to come — both ‘I Could Get Used To This’ and the title track ‘Superbloom’ feel romantic and angelic, floating somewhere between our world and heaven. Especially on the latter, we feel a heavenly presence when Jessie hits those falsetto notes backed by a choir. Every romantic gesture should lead to something a little naughty, if you ask us — and that’s exactly where we’re headed with ‘Sauna’. After seeing it receive so much praise online, even being labelled the “gay anthem” of the album, we were excited to press play. When the production starts, we instantly think we’re in for a treat. But once the chorus hits, we feel a bit overwhelmed and lost. The vocal production becomes huge and almost theatrical, while the instrumental stays cool and restrained. Trust us, we really tried to love it as much as everyone else — but we’re just not sold. The follow-up is much more our taste. With ‘Mr. Valentine’, it almost feels like a distant cousin of ‘Ooh La La’. Don’t get us wrong — nothing comes close to that iconic, timeless record. But if we had to imagine ‘Ooh La La’ as the soundtrack to an over-the-top romantic musical, this would be it. It’s fun, flirty, naughty, and dramatic in all the right places. From Valentine to real love — ‘Love You For’ opens with her children singing the intro. It’s incredibly sweet and shows how deeply rooted the love is in this song. It’s romantic, warm, and near the end, a group of voices chant “Love you for the rest of my life!”. This is the kind of song we can imagine being played at a wedding. Our absolute favorite on the album is the single ‘Ride’. The song lives in a world of its own — nothing else on the album quite compares. Jessie shared that it was created years ago, around the same time as What’s Your Pleasure?, and that makes total sense. It feels like a continuation of that era, while still pushing things forward creatively with its western-inspired twist. We’d even go as far as saying this lands in our top five Jessie Ware songs overall. Another standout is the brilliant ‘No Consequences’, created together with Tom McFarland from the band Jungle. You can definitely hear his influence — it’s groovy, rhythmic, and made to be experienced with a live band. It’s the kind of song that would be huge during a festival set. The chanting chorus seems like a perfect opportunity for the crowd to get in and join the song. We were incredibly excited for this album, and while there are some great highlights, we can’t fully connect to it in the same way we have with her previous releases. Even though Superbloom sticks to its themes of romance, love, and sensuality, it doesn’t always feel cohesive as a full body of work. At times it leans too heavily into being big, dramatic, and cinematic — almost to the point of feeling like too much to our taste. Still, we’ll hold on to our favorites and, as always, continue rooting for Jessie — we’re simply too big of fans not to.
