Jessie Ware is the unsung pop heroine that we all truly need in 2018. The singer-songwriter has charted a patient but damn near faultless path from 2013’s ‘Devotion’ to her latest, ‘Glasshouse’ – never straying from an unabashed take on pop that eschews trends and drama for an earnest belief in the majesty of a polished soul hook. Themes of marriage and motherhood permeate ‘Glasshouse’, but it’s no coffee-table affair. It’s a bright, dreamy set of songs, devoted to restraint and taste – like Prince at his minimalist best – exemplified by D’Angelo bassist Pino Palladino’s effortless grooves on ‘Selfish Love’, or the way its myriad of producers and writers allow Ware to just do what she does best, like rising from a hesitant whisper to a wild roar on highlight ‘Midnight’. Ware is the proof you need that it’s not just twenty-somethings making unmissable pop today.

Sat 24 Mar, 7.30pm at O2 Academy 2, 16-18 Horse Fair, Birmingham B1 1DB, £32.20 seetickets.com