Sorry Ms. Lewis, No Mariah Award for You This Time Around

Original Release Date: April 08, 2008
Genre: Popular
Label: J-Records
Number of Discs: (1)

I wanted to believe. I wanted to like Ms. Leona Lewis the exotic and beautiful 23-year old Brit from London, England, who is supposed to be (according to one Simon Cowell) the second coming of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston all rolled into one multi-cultural package.

Sorry Simon I am not buying it, so far. You and Clive (Davis) have pasteurized homogenized Ms Lewis to the point dullness petting heavily with boredom.

To be fair I listened to Spirit, released April 8th in the United States, a number of times before sitting down to pen this review. And every time, after every spin of the CD, I was left with the impression that despite what its name implies, Ms. Lewis’s debut CD is surprisingly devoid of soul and character.

Once I got past the first two tracks of Spirit, Bleeding Love, and Better in Time, I became bored with the over produced tracks and the sophomoric lyrics that did nothing to highlight what appears to be a promising voice if only it and Ms. Lewis were set free to explore all of its wonderful breath. As it is Spirit lacks Ms. Lewis’s stamp, her personality, her sound, her vocal rendering. Yes, she—Leona—names Mariah and Whitney as two of her influences, but, this is not their CD, it was supposed to be hers and yet at times if I did not know who I was listening to I could have sworn it was Carey, so heavily reliant is Ms. Lewis on Ms. Carey’s lofty sound.

The one song that might have announced Ms. Lewis in style, track No. 8, The First Time Ever I saw Your Face, a song Roberta Flack made famous, was nothing but mediocre. When Ms. Lewis’s voice should have rang out and tugged at the listeners ears and heart, its aural wings were clipped and I was left feeling let down and profoundly disappointed because the voice is there, it is just hemmed in by far too much production and the need to stamp out yet another mediocre formulaic Popular CD for mass consumption.

And it’s doubly a shame because most of the lackluster songs on Spirit are in some shape or form ballads, but the translation is lost, the soul of the songs left in the engineer’s booth. Given the lyric and production talent—Clive Davis, Tedder, Akon and Ne-Yo, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Dallas Austin, Stargate, and J.R. Rotem, all of whom have long and distinguish track records in pop—it is bewildering that Spirit turned out so vapid and lifeless.

My advice to Ms. Lewis: next time around, and no doubt there will be a next time, leave Mariah at home and bring your voice and personality to the musical table. That is the Leona Lewis I would like to hear.

Track Listing:

1. Bleeding Love
2. Better In Time
3. I will Be
4. I’m You
5. Forgive Me
6. Misses Glass
7. Angel
8. The First Time Ever I saw Your Face
9. Yesterday
10. Whatever It Takes
11. Take A Bow
12. Footprint in the Sand
13. Here I Am