This release snuck up on me. I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere in time to put it on the radar — I just found it mentioned somewhere after it had already dropped, so I’m glad I found it. Especially since this is kinda-sorta a second ‘Most Wanted’ fulfillment. Glynne didn’t make the final 5+ year list (her last album released in 2018), but she was an honorable mention in the footnotes of that post.
As previously mentioned, I first discovered Jess Glynne as she made publicity appearances for her debut album back in 2015. One of those appearances was The Daily Show, and I was blown away by her powerful, gravelly alto.
Her vibrant red hair didn’t hurt, if I’m being honest.
But I loved her debut, and she was on my regular rotation for years with just that one LP. She gave us just one more album in 2018 before going on hiatus; there was, seemingly, a disagreement with her label, so she just stopped for a while until she could sign to a new label.
Jess, her third full-length album, is the result of the move to EMI.
And, frankly, it was worth the wait. Glynne’s vocals are just as deep and powerful as always, and her brand of R&B- and Soul-infused Pop has taken a step forward with the move. Much of this comes directly from the strength of the vocal melodies and hooks in damn near every song on the album. Between her talent and the strength of her voice, if Glynne has a strong melody, she’ll make it even better.
That said, Glynne is definitely among the artists who utilize a lot of producers; there’s none of the singer-songwriter charm here that you’ll find in the Swiftian arm of the supergenre or in smaller Indie acts like Brye. Even so, she doesn’t leave the same plasticky aftertaste that others do. I can’t speak to how much of her writing process is just her versus how much is *Production Gloss*, and frankly I’m too busy bopping to care when the album is playing.
Especially with songs like “Say It Isn’t True”, with its semi-spiritual refrain which builds big in the Chorus with this Faith-filled Major Chord sound, with the speaker leaning in on how much this relationship means to her, then dropping into a lower chord and pressing with the title: “Say it isn’t true…”
I also have to note that the transition from “Say It Isn’t True” to “Chair”, from desperate hope to raw heartbreak, is beautifully devastating.
These songs aren’t filled with Swiftian-level clever lyrics; nor do you get the highly personal compositions of Brye; nor the tight-knit synchronicity of Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, mastering and mixing her compositions in his basement. But Jess still offers a long list of songs with catchy melodies and a lot of polish.
The thematic focus on heartbreak and navigating relationships is fairly loose, and that is really the album’s biggest weakness, along with the somewhat small track length delta.
But there isn’t a bad song here. It’s a solid album, start-to-finish, and it manages to do everything I was hoping for from a new Jess Glynne release.
Rating: Blue