Jessie James Decker - Jessie James (2009)

Tracklist

01. Wanted (Main)
02. Bullet (Album Version)
03. I Look So Good (Without You) (Album Version)
04. Burnin' Bridges (Album Version)
05. Blue Jeans (Main Version)
06. My Cowboy (Album Version)
07. Big Mouth (Album Version)
08. Burn It Up (Album Version)
09. Psycho Girlfriend (Album Version)
10. Inevitable (Album Version)
11. Girl Next Door (Album Version)
12. Guilty (Album Version)

Forget all the marketing bluster and sampled banjo loops: Jessie James is in no way a country singer, she's a Christina Aguilera wannabe in tight blue jeans and tall cowboy boots, belting out songs co-written by Kara DioGuardi and Katy Perry and constructed in ProTools. Like the girl-kissing Perry, James revels in creating the perception that she's a sexy bad girl, leaning hard on single-entendre flirtations and shopworn jokes, stooping so low to pull out the classic "is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me" on "Bullet," one of two cuts co-written by Perry. Jessie James manages to create some heat, but not enough to disguise how she, like her idols Xtina and Katy, is a complete show biz kid doing whatever she can to be a star. That eagerness to sell out can be grating, especially when her 2009 debut slides into glassy ballads, but fortunately she's also picked up (perhaps unwittingly) on the underlying oddness of Aguilera and Perry, turning out purportedly mainstream pop that puts together familiar ingredients in weird ways. Jessie struts in her "Blue Jeans," a tight rhythmic chat, turns out the best homage to early Christina Aguilera with the great first single "Wanted," delves deeply into the weird with the vaguely ominous "Psycho Girlfriend," and the shimmering, minor-key "Girl Next Door," another Katy Perry co-write that oddly recalls Kate Bush. These are inspired, original pop, and, of course, nowhere near country music -- but, hey, putting on a sassy country girl act is what it takes to get Jessie James into the game, that's fine, because the best moments of Jessie James suggest that she could wind up as enjoyably odd as her inspirations.

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