Jessie James

Jessie James | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 11, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mercury Records
• ASIN: B002DKGWUM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,130 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

"I only want to be wanted by you," belts out 20-year-old Georgia stunner Jessica Rose James, better known as newly minted pop diva Jessie James, on "Wanted," the first single from her Mercury Records/Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ) debut album, and it's love at first listen.

A big talent in a petite, power-packed package, James has been ready for her close-up since she was the age of two, when the self-described, well-traveled "military brat," (with a little bit of Greek and Italian thrown in there), born under the fiery Aries sign in a field hospital in Italy, started singing into a toy microphone and tape recorder, a gift from her mom. By nine, she was composing her own songs on a plastic guitar (the first called "It's Gonna Be Alright"), performing as a youngster at events like the opening of Sea World and the Republican Convention, and working with a string of significant writers in Nashville at 15.

After one of her song demos landed in the hands of Mercury President David Massey, she aced an audition with IDJ boss Antonio "L.A." Reid. "He got out from behind his desk, started dancing, hugged me and said, `We're going to dinner...and welcome to the label!'

"I've known this is what I was supposed to do since I was 10," adds Jessie, who cites her influences as LeAnn Rimes, Christina Aguilera, Janis Joplin and Bobbie Gentry. "I'm just anxious to get out there and let the world hear me. I'm just so excited. I've got a lot to say and I'm more than ready for this."

With a message of female empowerment and refusing to play the victim, Jessie's first single, "Wanted," which she co-wrote with American Idol judge and hit songwriter Kara DioGuardi as well as Mitch Allen and David Hodges, shows off her intensity in a full-throttle dance-rock scorcher that catches and won't let go.

"My mother taught me when I was growing up not to let myself be treated badly," she insists. "I think it's a real good message to young girls out there... don't wait around for a guy to change. Just get out.

"I just don't like doing what I'm told. That's what I love about rock. Rockers are just so ballsy. They do whatever they want on-stage, which I really admire. You still have to be a lady, but I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be like that. I feel like, in another world, I could have been in a `90s rock band."

On songs like the twangy "My Cowboy," co-written with Mercury Nashville artist Jamey Johnson and Randy Houser, first previewed by Perez Hilton on his popular website last year, and the sassy "Blue Jeans," with its hip-hop swagger and tribal percussion--featured on the soundtrack of the hit Touchstone film version of Sophie Kinsella's best-seller Confessions of a Shopaholic--Jessie shows she's not afraid to strut her sexuality, either. She points out that lyrics like "Gimme some like I never had" ("Wanted") and "Saddle up and take me for a little ride" ("My Cowboy") may be just what they say, suggesting the latter could well be about hopping on a horse.

"You can take it anyway you want," she laughs. "There's nothing wrong with being a little sexy, if you do it with class. I'm not going out there taking my clothes off, but I do think it's empowering to feel comfortable with your sexuality...within reason, of course."

Working with producer Julian Bunetta (Hillary Duff, Sean Kingston), James' debut album shows off a variety of musical styles and sounds, from the arena-rock belt of "Wanted," the mix of banjo, fiddle and rock guitar in "My Cowboy" and the hip-hop beat and playful schoolyard rhyming of "Blue Jeans" to the torch song ballad "Guilty" and the stark, stripped-down, soulful blues intimacy of "Liar."

"When I first tried to get a record deal, my real problem was, I couldn't put my music in a single box," she explains. "I just loved everything. That was part of me growing up in so many different places. I didn't want to limit myself to just one kind of music. I just decided, why not just do all of it, and somehow blend it together. And I think I've done that. There are all different types of music, beats and instrumentation."

And though based in Nashville, this "southern girl" wanted to "be a little more risky," delving into other genres, especially on "Blue Jeans, co-written with Bunetta, a playful, hip-hop chant, inspired by her experience on the step team in high school.

"That song came about in the studio," she recalls. "Julian and I worked for hours upon hours in the studio making hit happen. We were on the same page, young and hungry, and it just worked."

Co-written with Josh Kear, who penned Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats," and Mark Irwin (Garth Brooks), "Guilty" is similarly a song that turns the tables on the usual tale of women as victims, deciding, in no uncertain terms, what's good for one is good for the other, with telling lines like, "I feel everything/But guilty."

"That's my favorite song on the album, production-wise, lyrics, melody," says Jessie. "You can really feel the pain I'm going through. I was dating this rock musician at the time, who was always on tour. And I was thinking, `I bet he's doing all these things, so why shouldn't I?' So I went into a writer's session with Josh and told him how I was feeling about this guy, what was going on in my head. He started strumming the guitar and I just began singing. It just felt so natural, a really special moment.

"I've never written a song I didn't feel true to. Everything I've ever done is a true story. I feel everything I write. I can't fake it."

For Jessie James, music is her life, her passion, her lover. She won't even date, with her focus saved strictly for her career. She has no other choice. And now, she is fully prepared to see all those childhood dreams finally come true.

"I'm losing patience/Over the time you've wasted," she wails in "Wanted" about a recalcitrant lover, but she may as well be talking about the release of her new album.

"I've always had too many fantasies to just settle in life," she says. "I'll never quit chasing my dreams. I don't care about the money or the fame. I've always been an old soul and able to relate to people older than me. That's why I had a difficult time in school. I was ready to get out and start singing. I'd sit in math class writing songs in my journal, looking at the clock, waiting to leave."

For Jessie James, school's out. With her debut Mercury album, she's graduated and on her way to the stardom she always envisioned for herself.

"I just want to be wonderful," she writes on her MySpace page.

Jessie James' self-titled bow proves she's more than ready to seize her moment.

Product Description

2009 debut album from the new Pop princess. Recorded in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and London, the album takes off with 'Wanted', the full-throttle Dance-Rock scorcher that Jessie co-wrote with American Idol judge and hit songwriter Kara DioGuardi. There's also 'Bullet', a catchy Rock gem co-written with pal Katy Perry.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up, this album is a lot of fun., August 10, 2009

By 

Ruby - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Jessie James (MP3 Download)

If you are considering purchasing this album (for the formidable price of...$1.99), I would go right ahead. All of Jessie's songs are well done and her voice is just fine and dandy. As I was listening to the album all the way through, I found myself singing along, bopping around in my chair and occasionally laughing out loud, not in derision, but in delight at the humor and general fun of some of the songs lyrics. The tunes are catchy and Jessie's singing is just as good or better, in spots, than a lot of the other young women topping the charts. So, perhaps the nay-sayers will give her another listen, with the mind set that she's here to entertain us, not to change our lives and save our souls.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning first effort--answering the critics., August 10, 2009

By 

Alex in Texas "Alex" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jessie James (Audio CD)

An extraordinary premiere effort by a musical talent who could make it as either a songwriter, or a singer...but gives us the gift, in her eponymous debut, of both. Jessie James possesses remarkable emotional insight for someone so young, a deft manner with both lyrics and melody, and a deliciously rich voice to communicate it all. And, as a couple of the women in my life have observed (when chuckling at me for being enthralled with her music), she's pretty freakin' hot. Obviously, her beauty has nothing whatsoever to do with her music...but it doesn't hurt a thing.

Other reviewers criticize the album as not having a defined "theme." I disagree. The theme, with a couple of alternately playful and earnest self-conscious exceptions (Blue Jeans, and Girl Next Door respectively), represents the range of the young romantic experience. It covers the evolution of the relationship from beginning to end, with some arguably seamy, but emotionally resonant, sidetrips. We start with two fun but self-assertive anthems to what the modern woman seeks--what we would all hope our sisters and daughters find--in My Cowboy and Big Mouth. She gives us two portraits of the burning compulsion of newfound desire, whether lustier in nature (Wanted), or somewhat more idealized (Inevitable, which is also one of the "sidetrip" songs). It proceeds through a thoughtful retrospective on something that was either a pre-empted romance, or might have started, but been ended before it got too serious (Burnin' Bridges). Illicit romance, as pining true love (Inevitable) or something less noble (Guilty). We see permutations of the end of love, both as the one ending things (Burn It Up), and as the one surviving, and flourishing, despite heartbreak (I Look So Good Without You). On the fringes, she shows us the girl who's commitment-phobic (but eventually "broken") in Bullet...another brilliantly fun, energetic pop treat, apparently co-penned with Katy Perry, and slated, at one point, to be her second single. It reverberates with the same pointed post-feminist sensibility as My Cowboy and Big Mouth, but shows glimpses of the reluctant emotional vulnerability of the girl wanting true love. On the other side of that spectrum, there's the girl who's anything but phobic (about commitment): the Psycho Girlfriend. Again, a fun song, without being shallow. We've all known such girls, and would have done better to avoid them...but, as she explains, might have missed out on the best we've ever had.

With the exceptions of a couple of songs, both of them engagingly listenable, they're all of a piece. While I might have ordered them differently, if I wanted to emphasize the evolution of love, I don't see anything out of place. Perfectly in keeping with the theme, and a shame in having been omitted, is her "Liar," another frustrated-love song. Like most of her work, it's melodic, well-written, and emotionally nuanced. (I believe it's available on her myspace page.)

As to those who talk about the album being unmemorable, I submit that the songs are as well-written as Taylor Swift's, cover a much broader emotional spectrum (I like Taylor Swift as a songwriter, but she limits herself to a pretty narrow niche), and much better sung. Billboard refers to Jessie as a hybrid of Shania Twain, Carrie Underwood, and Christina Aguilera. They're right. She has a remarkable voice, although she's sometimes a little heavy-handed on the "country" style in the more pop songs. (Doesn't bother me a bit, but I can see how some would prefer that it be toned down.) That's the price of doing an album with such a broad spectrum of influences, with country, pop, blues, southern rock...overall, a delicious mix.

Look for another couple omissions on the next album, I hope: School Girl, and Turn His Love on Me...or something like that. They both showcase her vocal power, and display more of the varied influences informing her style. And they, too, are love songs.

Order it. Enjoy it. Don't feel guilty about it...or do! Revel guiltily in it, as your Rachmaninoff or Mozart languishes unplayed for days at a time. Beware, though...it grows on you.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprise...., August 13, 2009

By 

Cory M. Maxwell "Tulmax" (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jessie James (MP3 Download)

Wow...what can I say?..I'm a dance and techno freak so the twang wasn't exactly what i was listening for, but it's not that bad. Sure a little slide guitar and blues guitar was a given, but I do like the album. It's words are funny and the tunes are catchy. I first heard of her music with the song "dangerous" and turned some of the dance crowd on to it..and they liked it!...so yeah its definitely worth the $1.99. Although my hardcore dance friends blow if off as pop, It'll be my secret guilty pleasure.