Don't Tease Me With A Good Time

For anyone wondering why there was a seven-year gap between Jessie J’s <i>Don’t Tease Me with a Good Time</i> and its predecessor, the seasonal covers collection <i>This Christmas Day</i>, the opening line of lead single “NO SECRETS” offers one devastating reason: “I lost my baby/But the show must go on,” she sings over a foggy R&B backdrop, recounting a miscarriage she experienced during a 2021 tour. <i>Don’t Tease Me with a Good Time</i> is a chronicle of her journey back to the light. On the symphonic-soul pick-me-up “BELIEVE IN MAGIC”, she pledges to set grieving aside to “make love and listen to Sade”, while the stripped-down, self-analytical ballad “COMPLICATED” sees her reflecting on her whirlwind career and heeding the life lessons that will guide her going forward. But despite the album’s introspective tone, Jessie remains a strong proponent of dance-floor therapy, and by the time we reach the I-will-survive synth-pop statement “LIVING MY BEST LIFE” and the bass-popping disco delight “H.A.P.P.Y”, her personal tragedy has given way to communal joy.