When Jessie J’s eagerly awaited debut album Who You Are was released on Monday, I was very tempted to do a song-by-song review of the album immediately after listening to it first time. But I always believe that you have to give an album time to grow on you to make a better judgement of how great or poor (as the case may be) it is. But after 5 days, here it is. Song-by-song review with sound bites after the jump.
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1. Price Tag
I love this song! I bought the bonus version of the album so I was fortunate to have both the studio and acoustic version. Of course, I prefer the acoustic version because it just a guitar and “the voice”. The studio version is great but sounds a little generic. But who am I to say, when it went no.1. The majority must have loved it.
I think Price Tag, Rainbow and Stand Up definitely show Jessie J’s intentions to ‘bring the world together’ through her anthemic songs. As cheesy as that may be, I think its admirable.
My rating: ***
2. Nobody’s Perfect
You might be able to gauge soon enough the common thread of my frustration about some songs on this album. One word. Production.
For such a great song as “Nobody’s Perfect” which is so cleverly written, catchy and most importantly very easily relatable to life- the production should be much better. It is a one dimensional and pretty basic production that starves the song of all its musicality and layers that the storyline of the song provides.
My rating: **
3. Abracadabra
Abracadabra was kind of blah to me. Not bad but not great either. It is clearly one of those ‘album filler’ type songs that are unlikely to be released as a single. I am assuming it probably wouldn’t make it on any other huge female artists’ album list so I am unsure of why it made on the “Who you are” album cut.
My rating: *
4. Big White Room
It is amazing how this song, which was the first song written by Jessie J at 16 could survive 5 years later to be what I think is one of the best on the album. Again I think the song represents the true essence of Jessie J because it is an absolutely faultless live recording. Gives me goosebumps. Anyone who got to witness the live album recording at Scala is a lucky so and so.
My rating: *****
5. Casualty of Love
Casualty of love is a song that Jessie J rarely sings at gigs but when she does it has blown me away. The lyrics and range of the song lend itself to equally display Jessie’s incredible vocal range, control and emotion.
Yet the basic/simplistic production of the song cheapens it. Again, I think the production is very much an injustice to the rare times I have seen it performed live. A live acoustic version of the song may have better represented how great it actually is.
My rating: **
6. Rainbow
Now this track is definitely one of my favourites on the album. This is maybe because Jessie hasn’t performed this song live at any of the 4 gigs I have seen her so I had a chance to judge it first on the album without any comparisons.
However I like it more so because of the hard-hitting musicality of the production that gives what some may say cheesy lyrics (about us all being the colours of the rainbow) a powerful edge. What do I mean by the musicality of the production? Well I feel like you can actually hear a purposeful collaboration of the guitar, drums, base etc that anchor the song rather than a watered down production that almost feels like its going through the motions.
My rating: ****
7. Who’s laughing now?
Although I really like the concept of the song about having the last laugh on all those people in school that didn’t think you were cool, I wasn’t keen on how Jessie J sounded on this track. The vocals and lyrics were more reminiscent of Lady Sovereign than the incredibly talented Jessie J the world has come to love. I say no more….
My rating: *
8. Do It Like A Dude
Like marmite some have come to love Do It Like A Dude and others hate it – thinking it is a misrepresentation of Jessie J. Well, I love it. Do it like a dude has that purposeful, edgy vibe going on that I was so desperately expecting from the entire album.
My rating: *****
9. Mama Knows best
This song has tons of umphh to it. I love the jazzy vibe the song has got going on and the incredible vocal range Jessie demonstrates; despite some people who have said the vocal gymnastics is “too much”. My favourite line, “I aint no rag doll you can pick up and drop!”
My rating: ****
10. L.O.V.E
L.O.V.E is another song I prefer performed live than the album version. The beat supporting is very weak in my opinion. I got bored of the song relatively quickly, which was strange because this was one of the songs I was looking forward to hearing the most. However the story behind the song is interesting. As Jessie says in the video at the end of this post, it is a song that she wanted to keep from the world about falling in love with a girlfriend.
My rating: ***
11. Stand Up
This is another Jessie-esque anthemic song, referring to the idealistic notions of standing up for love and reaching for the stars. I rate this song because it has so much personality to it. You can’t help but nod your head and sing a long.
My rating: ****
12. I Need this
After listening to the album front to back a few times now, I need this has become my favourite song after the incredible “Who you are” (live version). Written for Chris Brown that also features on his album “Graffiti”, it is probably the best-produced song on “Who you are”. It is very musical. I love the electric guitar intro and the fact you can feel the strength of the piano, electric guitar and drums throughout. The song has a real climax to it and it is beautifully written.
My Rating: *****
13. Who You Are (Live Version)
Now I almost feel like if this was the only song on the album I’d be as satisfied as I would with a 13-song album. No matter how many times I hear this song, it takes me to an emotional place that great ballads should take you.
Every time I hear the line “don’t lose who you are”, that is enough for me to self reflect and literally remind myself of who I am in both my world and the world we live in. Whether “don’t lose who you are” is said, written or sung it is a line that never loses its power. Actually this song is full of powerful lines like “its okay not to be okay”, “tears don’t mean your losing” to cite a few.
What makes this album version great is because it is the live version, full of emotion, vulnerability and rawness that is not typical of a ‘new’ artist to display. I would have been annoyed if ‘Who you are” was accompanied with the type of production I mentioned before that takes away from the power of the song. I love the fact you actually hear Jessie get emotional during the performance. It is real. This song could single handedly negate all the previously mentioned criticisms of the album!
My rating: *****
Question
Is anyone else aware of the song “Technology” which you can see Jessie perform on youtube? I am really wondering why it didn’t make the album cut? It is a genius song about falling in love with technology like skype, bbm, twitter, facebook rather than the person you love who you are trying to contact through all those mediums. I think it is a very current and smart love song. It certainly would have been a much better substitute for a song like Abracadabra! Oh well (sadface) Here it is, in case you haven’t heard it.
Overall
Well that was my take on the album! Overall I’d give it a *** rating. Considering how eagerly anticipated it was and the limitless nature of Jessie J’s ability, I am little disappointed with parts of the end product. I was expecting an album on par with classics like “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” or Pink’s debut album “Can’t Take Me Home”. Was that too much to expect?
There are too many songs that were cheapened by the simplistic, weak and generic production; which is shame in light of how powerful and edgy Jessie is.
All the best songs for me i.e. Who You Are, I Need This, Rainbow and Big White Room were either live acoustic recordings or supported by very purposeful, musical and edgy beats that gave the song a heartbeat. It begs the question, would it have been better for Jessie J to release an “Unplugged live” version of this album just like Lauryn Hill did many years back? (Although the Lauryn Hill “unplugged” album was poor in my opinion)
Since Jessie J is so incredible live, it may have been hard to recreate that energy for a studio produced album but that should be even more reason to have beats that were strong to support strong songs. Maybe someone like Labrinth or Timberland should have been in charge of production?! They produce songs that make you get that screw face on! The type of beats that almost take over your body.
With all that being said, I remain pretty a dedicated Jessie J fan and delighted that her album is sitting pretty at No.2 behind Adele (who is also incredible). I am already looking forward to Jessie’s 2nd LP.
See the video below for Jessie J discussing each song on the album.
I’d love to hear what ya’ll think about Who You Are. Feel free to comment below.
Ciao for now!
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