A separate youth is often a perfect breeding ground for musicality. Jessica Ellen Cornisch used to have great difficulty keeping up with school and was plagued by a heart condition. At eighteen she even had a stroke, no small matter for a teenager. Perhaps this is the reason why Jessie J, as her stage name goes, sounds a lot older than her 22 years would suggest. Another explanation for the confident
… tone on Who You Are is that the debut album had been in the pipeline for years. In the meantime, the English co-wrote songs for others, such as Miley Cyrus's mega hit Party In The USA. There is no such stunner on this disc, although there is enough for fans to dance and sing along. Jessie J is still a bit hit and miss. Sometimes switching between slippery r & b vocals and quiet acoustic music is a bit awkward. Nonetheless, this cheeky girl has got her hands on a pretty line, which is somewhere between the Lily Allen and Pink styles. The fact that the BBC has awarded her as the most promising artist of 2011 is entirely understandable. (JE)more