On paper Jessie J is an amazing pop star. Great looking but not willing to play the eager-to-please dollybird, full of cheeky Essex girl vim and verve, clearly musically multitalented, thoroughly immersed in soul and funk, and with a healthy pair of lungs to boot – as her early solo YouTube appearances (see below) amply demonstrated.
And there are bits of this album where she shows what she's capable of, in particular the high-kicking cabaret blues with dubstep bass of “Mamma Knows Best” in which she hollers her heart out like Christina Aguilera at her belting best. “Casualty of Love” is pretty good too, one of those pop-soul ballads that'll suddenly make sense one grey Tuesday morning when it comes on Magic FM – and her frankly ludicrous robot-voiced breakthrough single “Do it Like a Dude” remains as irritatingly loveable (or is it loveably irritating?) as ever.
These are, sadly, oases in a sea of bland, though. The vast bulk of this album is dominated by terminally unfunky mock hip-hop rhythms with strummed guitars, pop dance synths and massed harmonies that completely smooth out all the character of Jessie's voice. The lyrics, too, tend to kookiness and pseudo New Age platitude – about how we're all rainbows or how we don't need money, just to have a good time. The latter sentiment, in recent hit single “Price Tag”, actually almost works as an antidote to acquisitive pop culture, but the effect is ruined a) by the dreariness of the song and b) by its empty – but very expensive – over-production.
Overall it's the sort of washed out, motivational R&B-your-mum-would-like that has sold gazillions of records for UK artists Jay Sean and Natasha Bedingfield in the US, so will probably do just fine for Jessie, and good luck to her; it's just disappointing when we know what she's capable of. Maybe one day she'll go mental and make a loony rave diva album with Andre 3000 guest spots, futurist hip hop beats and heavy-metal guitars. We live in hope.
Find 
Buy Jessie J ticketsWatch Jessie J sing "Mamma Knows Best" in her bedroom
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