Jessie Ware, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

And it’s all deserved: despite having only one album’s worth of material to draw from (save one newbie and early single ‘Valentine’), tonight’s setlist feels remarkably matured, weak patches incredibly thin on the ground, and in all a true testament to the strength of Ware’s early crop of songs.

Showcasing the material with a modest set up of guitars, drums and keys, the songs are rendered even more crisply than in the studio, with plenty of space in the arrangements through which the grooves can ooze. Indeed, it’s possible – considering the volume with which the audience were singing along to singles like ‘110%’ - that some of the material might have been a little more understated than people expected. Ware herself shows a little more restraint than the acts for which she once provided vocals. Thus ‘110%’ itself operates through little more rhythmic framework than its pulsing bass line, with almost no beat underpinning the ultimately reserved vocal hook. For those who might have expected the show to go off like a Disclosure remix, there might have been disappointment.

But it would be hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with Ware’s vocal performance tonight, as she vastly surpasses the vocal takes of the songs’ studio recorded counterparts. Putting her single tracked live vocal front and center  Ware demonstrates her brilliant command and range in a way the album never quite captured, with its needlessly cluttered use of delay and multi-tracking, which is once noticed and forever distracting. Indeed, it’s the most stripped back and direct numbers tonight which assert themselves most strongly, with the busier textures leaving a little to be desired (an experimental bit of dissonance and counter rhythm to ‘Still Love Me’ pretty much derailed the whole thing) and a stunning cameo performance from Goldsmiths Vocal Ensemble on ‘Who Says No’ teased us with how much stronger the set would have been with live vocals used in place of the few instances of backing tracks and samples.

Played straight and honestly as a live band arrangement and solo voice, show-stopping closer ‘Running’ not only puts the jewel in the crown of what really feels like a watershed performance for Ware, but also proves herself as a rich song writer, rather than just melding icy cool vocals to the stellar production work of others. It’s a full-blooded smash hit of a song, with its modestly laced components coming together gently to create a towering piece of sultry pop music. And so with tonight’s set proving that she has the talent to merit the hype in terms of both performance and song writing ability, Ware is on an excellent platform to launch into what will hopefully become a long and successful career in crafting elegant pop music.