MUSIC REVIEW - Who You Are

Artist: Jessie J
Genre: R'n'B/Pop
Release Year: 2011
Label: Lava/Universal Records/Island

As a general rule, I don't like contempary music. I didn't really like Jessie J until very recently. But my opinion was changed by two performances, one on Radio 1's Live Lounge and one on Jools Holland's Hootenany. Live Lounge showed off her very impressive vocal range and skill, and Hootenany showed off her stage presence and her ability as a performer. Since then, I've been a huge fan.

So, in a huge leap out of my jazz-and-rock-obsessed character, I bought her album, and got a very funny look from the bloke at the cashier.

The album itself has been six years in the making. Like most albums of the genre, it includes a few very good songs, with alot of padding in between. It also varies loads in style. Songs like Abracadabra and Casualty of Love  have a definite 80s feel, while others like Do It Like A Dude and Rainbow feel very modern.

The album opens with the renowned number 1 single Price Tag. And it's not hard to see why it's been so successful. It's laid back with a very catchy chorus. I love the funky guitar in the background, and the overall simplicity of the track makes it very easy listening. However, I do think it's really let down by the pointless rap in the middle by B.o.B. It fits as well as a clown at a funeral.

Another highlight of the album is Big White Room. J said that she wrote the song when she was 10 years old after a little boy in the same hospital ward as her died in an operation. It is the only acoustic track on the album (with the only accompaniment being from an acoustic guitar), and because of this is the only track that allows J to really show off her full vocal potential.

The best track though for me is Mamma Knows Best. Imagine getting a bit Benny Goodman, a bit of Plan B, and then sticking it all in a blender with the zest of Duffy. I can't think of a better way of describing it. It's jazzy, enticing and, above all, very VERY fun. Even if you don't buy the album, make sure you download this track.

So those are three of the best tracks on the album, but what about the rest? There's a few other decent tracks, but songs such as Rainbow feel very unimaginative, as if they were written to fill the gaps. Unfortunately, this time-filler disease is all too common on modern albums.

One of the main things that stands out about this album is that here we have a mainstream musician who has written an album where not every track is a soppy love ballad. Yes some tracks are based around the theme, but these then stand out because, on this CD, they aren't the norm. And when J does write a song on the topic, she does so in a new and inventive way. For example, I haven't heard a song as brutally honest as L.O.V.E, and it works because of it.

Overall, this is a good debut from Jessie J. It's very interesting, and some of the songs are brilliantly crafted. However, there is a fair bit of padding and samey murk that we have heard before. Despite this though, J certainly shows alot of potential, and I would definately buy another album.

7/10


You can buy Jessie J's "Who You Are" from amazon.co.uk.

What do you think of the album? Let us know in the comments.
Tom :)

MUSIC REVIEW - Pointless Nostalgic

Artist: Jamie Cullum
Genre: Jazz/Pop
Release Year: 2005
Label: Candid

Right from the first note, it is obvious that Pointless Nostalgic isn't a traditional jazz album. Although Art Tatum and Keith Jarrett make fleeting entrances in Cullum's playing, his voice is his own and so is his style.

You and the Night and the Music is cheeky, and  I Can't Get Started is endearing, but the album doesn't really get going until the third track, an explosive cover of the jazz standard Devil May Care. Geoff Gascoyne's arrangement is a masterpiece and Cullum delivers a perfect vocal performance that is spikier than an electrocuted hedgehog. Martin Shaw's squeaky clean trumpet solo is also worth noting.

You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You is an easy-going version of the jazz standard, cutting back to minimal instrumentation. It's not experimental, it's not ambitious, this is as pure and simple as jazz gets.

In Pointless Nostalgic, Cullum dips his toes into the ocean of pop music for the first time, but still keeps one foot firmly grounded on the beach of jazz. It is certainly a risk worth taking; the song brims with charm and charisma, and you can't help but relate to the catchy refrain, "Photographs lost in time are all I see/A pointless nostalgic, that's me".

And just as you think the album can't get any better....it doesn't.

In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning is disappointing after the gem of the previous track. The introduction sounds like the brass band had one too many on Christmas Eve, and when the tune does eventually come in, it plods on slower than a tortoise on crutches.

Thankfully, in the form of Thelonias Monk's Well You Needn't, help is at hand. Cullum breathes new life into a great jazz classic and makes it his own, as he also does with It Ain't Necessarily So, which - for me - is the highlight of the album. Cullum really captures the mood of the song, and adds enough grit to  make the M25 safe in a blizzard.

The rest of the album carries on in the same way. High and Dry is an intelligent cover of the Radiohead original, and Lookin' Good shares the runaway cheek that started in Devil May Care.

The album takes its curtain call on I Want To Be A Popstar. It's a witty look at the modern music industry and it's irony more than makes up for the frankly dull melody.

Overall, Pointless Nostalgic is a fun debut for Cullum, and is full of promise and potential for future releases.

7/10
Buy Jamie Cullum's Pointless Nostalgic from amazon.co.uk


Tell us what you think of this album in the comments below. As always, we'd love to hear from you
Tom :)