Jessie Ware, already tremendous, is always better live: she’s so smooth and poised a vocalist that the slightest bit of studio refinement can blur out all that breath, sinew, tenacity that clenches and smokes around her voice while she manipulates it. Here she is on the Late Late Show with James Corden performing her standout single “Say You Love Me,” off her most recent album Tough Love, a song she wrote in 45 minutes with Ed Sheeran after getting salads at Whole Foods. Like Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” and the like, it’s a track built off the most basic kind of pop structure—so timeless that it could dip into blandness, if not for that sky-high I don’t want to fall in love, and Ware’s resolute presence for every nuance and turn.
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