Who You Are (Jessie J album)

Who You Are
Studio album by Jessie J
Released	25 February 2011 (2011-02-25) (see release history)
Recorded	2005–11 Conway Studios, Los Angeles, CA; GCR Audio, Buffalo, NY; Grove Studios, London; Herminator Studios, London; Quad Studios, New York NY; RAK Studios, London; Santisound Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Stadium Red Studios, New York, NY; Strawberry Bee Studios, Hollywood Hills, CA; The London Scala.
Genre	R&B, hip-hop, pop, reggae, dance, electronica, soul
Length	50:10
Label	Island, Lava (Universal Republic)
Producer	Dr. Luke, Martin K, Oak, Parker and James, The Invisible Men
Singles from Who You Are
"Do It Like a Dude" Released: 18 November 2010 "Price Tag" Released: 25 January 2011 "Nobody's Perfect" Released: 20 April 2011 "Who's Laughing Now" Released: 21 August 2011 "Domino" Released: 29 August 2011 "Who You Are" Released: 13 November 2011

Who You Are is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Jessie J (Jessica Ellen Cornish), released on 28 February 2011 in the UK and on 12 April in the US. Due to high demand and interest from fans, the release date was pushed ahead by over an entire month, from its original 28 March 2011 release date.^[1] Production for the album took place throughout 2010. A range of producers contributed to the album, including Dr. Luke, Toby Gad, and K-Gee, among others.

Who You Are received generally mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. It debuted at #2 on the UK Albums Chart selling 105,000 copies in its first week. The album debuted in the US at #11 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart with first-week sales of 34,000 copies. Two singles preceded the album: Jessie J's UK debut single "Do It Like a Dude" and "Price Tag", featuring B.o.B which served as the US lead single. A third single, "Nobody's Perfect", became J's third consecutive top 10 hit in the UK. The fourth single from the album "Who's Laughing Now", released 21 August 2011, peaked at #16 on the UK Singles Chart. The title track "Who You Are" was released on 13 November 2011 as the album's fifth UK single.

A re-release of Who You Are (variably called the "Deluxe Edition" or the "Platinum Edition") was released on 14 November 2011. It includes J's second US single "Domino" and two new songs.^[2]

Contents 1 Background 2 Singles 3 Reception 3.1 Critical response 3.2 Chart performance 4 Track listing 5 Charts and certifications 5.1 Charts 5.2 Certifications 5.3 Year-end charts 6 Release history 7 References 8 External links

Background

Who You Are was one of the most anticipated releases of 2011 due to Jessie J winning the Critics Choice award at the 2011 Brit Awards^[3] and topping the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll.^[4] On Twitter, Jessie J confirmed that it took her 6 years to completely finish the album - it was completed on 19 January 2011.^[5][6] In an interview Jessie J stated that she wrote her first song, "Big White Room", in a hospital when she was just 10 years old. A ward mate of hers, a little boy, died. She recalls waking up in the middle of the night and seeing him praying, and her mother explaining that he was having an operation the next day and was asking God to save him. "He died the next day so I said to my mum 'but God didn't save him'. I was so angry and it really confused me. I always wanted to write a song about the experience, but I knew I had to be of an age where it wasn't tacky or depressing and had a lightness to it." She prefers the song with just an acoustic guitar; stripped down and bare.^[7]

The song "Casualty of Love" was released to the US iTunes store on 22 February 2011.^[8] It's the title song of her album "Who You Are" of which she is proudest. It's the song that draws the most messages from fans, on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. "The other day I had a girl message me saying 'I was ready to take my life and then I heard "Who You Are"'. That pressure is beautiful but scary at the same time. I want to be a positive role model for young people. I always say that I'm half-artist, half-therapist", she laughs. She wrote the song at the end of a lonely three-month trip to Los Angeles when she was 20, having been shunted from studio to studio with various producers. "I'm very much someone that lives to be happy. It's not just about the parties and I know so-and-so – I'm not that girl. So I looked in the mirror and started to cry and said 'who am I?' Music is my therapy."^[7]

Singles

• The album's first single was the Parker & James and "The Invisible Men"-produced "Do It Like a Dude", which was released on 18 November 2010. Initially the single peaked at number five UK Singles Chart however, after Jessie won the Critics Choice award at the 2011 BRIT Awards, "Do It Like a Dude" would reached a new peak of number two, some eight weeks after first charting. The song also charted at 11 on the Irish Singles Chart.^[9]

• It was followed up by the B.o.B-assisted second single "Price Tag," released on 30 January 2011 and also serving as the album's lead US single.^[10] The single went on to peak at number one on 6 February 2011, giving Jessie her second top-three hit in the UK.^[11] "Price Tag" became Jessie's breakout international hit, also peaking at number one in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. On 15 April 2011.

• "Nobody's Perfect," one of her three favourite tracks from Who You Are, was released as the album's third single.^[12] It became Jessie's third consecutive top-ten hit in the UK peaking at number nine, performing similarly in Australia and New Zealand. In Ireland it became Jessie's third single to reach the top-fifteen.

• Initially Jessie confirmed the album's title track as the fourth single, during an interview with Digital Spy on 18 May 2011.^[13] However since then, Jessie revealed that UK fans had pushed her towards releasing. "Who's Laughing Now" instead, because of the sentiments against bullying.^[14] The video for "Who's Laughing Now" premiered on YouTube on 10 August 2011. It was the fourth single from the album.

• The song "Domino" from the platinum edition of Who You Are was released in the United States as second single in the country and as sixth in the United Kingdom.

• The title track "Who You Are" was released on 13 November 2011 as the fifth official UK single, while being the sixth official overall single.

Reception

Critical response

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(51/100)[15]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[16]
The A.V. Club	(C-)[17]
BBC Music	(mixed)[18]
The Guardian	[19]
The Independent	[20]
NME	(5/10)[21]
Pitchfork Media	(2.0/10)[22]
Rolling Stone	[23]
Slant Magazine	[24]
Spin	(7/10)[25]
Drowned in Sound	(1/10)[26]

Upon its release, Who You Are received mixed reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 51, based on 23 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews",^[15] while aggregating website AnyDecentMusic? reports a score of 4.9 based on seventeen professional reviews.^[27] Daisy Bowie Sell of The Daily Telegraph complimented Cornish's "big voice and ballsy attitude" and wrote that the album "switches effortlessly from R&B ballads to punchy rap tunes".^[28] Kitty Empire of The Observer noticed that Cornish "remains relatively quirky throughout" and found Who You Are "impressive, if not entirely lovable".^[29] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian wrote that it "brims with infectious, Americanised songs, delivered with a confidence money can't buy", but criticised the slower songs saying that "divested of the slowies, this would have been a fine pop record".^[19] Andy Gill from The Independent noticed "the distinctly transatlantic nature of her style" and praised the songs "Do It Like a Dude" and "Who's Laughing Now" "whose lithe, funky groove carries her dismissal of the schoolyard bullies", while criticizing other tracks such as "Casualty Of Love" and "Rainbow", calling them "unimpressive" and "tricked out with the showy vocal bling favoured by R&B divas as a substitute for genuine soul".^[20] Johnny Dee of Virgin Media found the album "a bit patchy"; he felt that "when Jessie is having fun she's unstoppable", but noted that "the album's problems come when Jessie overdoes the vocal warbling and completely forgets to write an actual song". However, he concluded by stating that Cornish will be "[one of] the biggest and coolest UK female artists for decades".^[30] Mischa Pearlman of Yahoo! Music wrote that the album "doesn't entirely deliver, but even when its songs fall short of the promised hype, their potential is obvious" and stated that "next time, she'll be one step closer to getting it spot on".^[31]

Mike Diver of BBC Music gave a mixed review, writing that "the songs of Who You Are are expectedly split between slower, slushier affairs and punchy anthems for bolshy teens" and called the album "too patchy, too hurried, the powers behind it too eager to capitalise on the artist's current chart success", although he felt that "there's ample room for improvement".^[18] Ailbhe Malone from NME described it as "cheeky, relevant, and fresh [...] but unfortunately [...] a flash that's shortly over" and noticed that "no matter how much Jessie J sings about being herself, we don't really ever get a sense of who, or what, that is".^[21] Gary McGinley of No Ripcord called it "an album of two halves as the stronger brat-pop moments soon give way to by insipid, dated ballads"; he noted that "there are glimpses of promise scattered between the overwrought delivery and unnecessary vocal gymnastics", but concluded by saying that Who You Are "promised much more than what has been delivered".^[32] Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman wrote that it "covers all the tried and tested commercial territory: mainly a slick, generic imitation of American R&B divas [...] blended with the obligatory hip-pop stance" and felt that Cornish "is more interested in tiresome vocal showboating than communicating anything truthful".^[33] Eric Henderson from Slant Magazine agreed, saying that "in the quest to find herself, she seems to have gotten sidetracked".^[24] Matthew Perpetua of Pitchfork Media was particularly critical; he felt that "the music is scattered, covering all the bases in an over-eager attempt to prove vocal chops" and noticed that Cornish "comes across like a severely dumbed-down Lily Allen at best, and at worst she seems like someone you would want to root against in a televised singing competition".^[22] Sean Adams of Drowned in Sound was equally negative; he wrote that the album "is riddled with so-called vocal performances that are a half a step above an X Factor audition", called it "a starchy soulless slop" and eventually described it as "an 'urban' 'pop' record made to fade in the background in lobbies and cafes, and, yeah, mandem-mandem, squawk, squawk".^[34]

Chart performance

On 6 March 2011, Who You Are debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, behind Adele's 21, shifting 105,000 copies in its first week.^[35] It has since been certified 2x platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 600,000 units in the UK.^[36] The album debuted at number eleven on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 34,000 copies.^[37] In Australia, the album peaked at number four.^[38] It has since been certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 35,000 units.^[39] The album debuted at number 30 in Denmark on 11 March 2011. The following week it reached number 33, before leaving the chart. On 12 August, Who Are You re-entered the chart at number ten. In its fifth week on the chart the reached number five, archiving a new peak position.^[38] On November 2011 it was revealed that Who You Are was the biggest selling debut album of 2011 in the UK. ^[40]

Track listing

• All CD and iTunes versions unlock access to bonus content on her official website.^[44]
• The Japanese release of Who You Are uses an alternate recording of "Nobody's Perfect" called the "New Album Version",^[45] previously included on the Australian digital EP for the song (called the "Alternative Version"). It is an extended version of the re-recorded radio edit with an additional chorus and outro.

Charts and certifications

Charts Chart (2011) Peak position Australian Albums Chart[38] 4 Austrian Albums Chart[38] 22 Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[38] 38 Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[38] 26 Canadian Albums Chart[46] 6 Danish Albums Chart[38] 5 Dutch Albums Chart[38] 41 French Albums Chart[38] 22 German Albums Chart[38] 18 Irish Albums Chart[47] 4 Italian Albums Chart[48] 74 New Zealand Albums Chart[38] 4 Polish Albums Chart[49] 51 Swiss Albums Chart[38] 29 UK Albums Chart[35] 2 Greek Albums Chart[50] 18 US Billboard 200[37] 11

Certifications Region Certification Sales/shipments Australia (ARIA)[51] Gold 35,000^ United Kingdom (BPI)[52] 2× Platinum 600,000^ ^shipments figures based on certification alone Year-end charts Chart (2011) Peak position New Zealand Albums Chart 10 Swiss Albums Chart[53] 99

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Edition
Ireland[54]	25 February 2011 (2011-02-25)	Island Records	Standard edition
Netherlands[55]		Universal Music
Switzerland[56]
United Kingdom[57]	28 February 2011 (2011-02-28)	Island Records
France[58]		Universal Music
Belgium[59]
Luxembourg[60]
Denmark[61]	2 March 2011
Australia[62]	4 March 2011
New Zealand[63]	7 March 2011
Brazil[64]	18 March 2011
Mexico[65]	5 April 2011
United States[66]	12 April 2011	Lava Records, Universal Republic
Canada
Germany[66]	20 May 2011	Universal Music
Japan[67]	8 June 2011
United States[68]	9 November 2011	Lava Records, Universal Republic	Deluxe Edition
United Kingdom[2]	14 November 2011	Island Records
Germany[69]	25 November 2011	Universal Music

References

External links

• Who You Are at Metacritic

Jessie J Discography • Awards and nominations Studio albums Who You Are Singles "Do It Like a Dude" • "Price Tag" • "Nobody's Perfect" • "Who's Laughing Now" • "Domino" • "Who You Are" Promotional singles "Casualty of Love" Featured singles "Up" Other songs "Repeat" • "My Shadow" Concert tours Stand Up Tour • Heartbeat Tour Related articles Island Records • Lava Records • "Party in the U.S.A."