mixtape maestro

In a previous post, we kinda came around to seeing why Jessie J was being given such deafening industry-backed hype as this big deal: Girl has some strong pipes, enough to convince us that in a live format, ticket-buyers wouldn’t leave disappointed. But those hoping that those better-than-average vocals would be matched with some interesting new pop sounds on J’s debut offering Who You Are may come away a bit perturbed when finally catching the album in it’s entirety.

Contrary to the promising, attention-grabbing zing of introductory single “Do It Like A Dude”, Who You Are comes across as a mostly dull affair, its blending of the quasi-rebellious antics of Pink with Natasha Bedingfield’s tireless attempts at creating a new classic anthem and production that acts as if the past fifteen years of pop haven’t happened doing little to support J’s NEW BEST DIVA EVER!!-type buzz.

Despite being an overall letdown as a whole set though, we can still see WYR continuing J’s international success as a singles artist for the next couple seasons, with our own personal prediction for future hit lying on the shoulders of album cut “Abracadabra”.

Produced by Top 40 staple Dr. Luke (who basically copy and pastes the shout-y hook of prior creation, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, here), “Abracadabra” is a likable stab at guy-crushing, J describing her wannabe-beau as “so damn keepable” (?) over warm piano hits and heavy drums that, along with her soulful vocals, somewhat charmingly date the record as the type of harmless female fare acts like Whitney Houston, Taylor Dayne and Lisa Stansfield would have brought to the charts in the early ’90′s.

A “keepable” cut, especially for listeners nostalgic for the pure-pop days before Auto-Tune and dub-step breakdowns.

“Abracadabra”: