Jessie Ware’s Tough Love Features Ed Sheeran, Dev Hynes, Julio Bashmore
2012’s Devotion, the first album from the British soul singer Jessie Ware, was one of the finest debuts in recent memory. And though we still don’t know when the follow-up album is coming, we do know a few more details about it. The new LP’s first single was “Tough Love,” a truly great song, and Tough Love is also the name of the LP. It’s produced entirely by BenZel, the team of superstar pop producers Benny Blanco and Two Inch Punch. But Billboard reports that it’ll also include some work from producers who worked on Devotion, including Julio Bashmore, Dave Okumu, and Kid Harpoon. The newly minted superstar Ed Sheeran also worked on the album, as did Arctic Monkeys producer and Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford, and the Lana Del Rey collaborator Emile Haynie. It’s possible, but not confirmed, that Miguel had something to do with the album; Ware recently spent some studio time with him. And Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes also said on Tumblr recently that he “did some work on this album.” That’s quite a team! It’ll be interesting to hear what they all came up with; I just hope it’ll still have some of the small-scale intimacy of Devotion. No release date yet, but we’ll let you know.
UPDATE: Tough Love will be out on PMR Records/Island on 10/6 (10/21 in North America). Here’s the tracklist:
01 “Tough Love”
02 “You & I (Forever)”
03 “Cruel”
04 “Say You Love Me”
05 “Sweetest Song”
06 “Kind of…Sometimes…Maybe”
07 “Want Your Feeling”
08 “Pieces”
09 “Keep on Lying”
10 “Champagne Kisses”
11 “Desire”