Spirit by Leona Lewis

Televised reality competition shows latch their hooks into me every now and then, and refuse to let go. I shrieked with joy when David Cook won American Idol last year. When McKey Sullivan took the title of America’s Next Top Model this past winter, I was quite pleased (well, not as pleased as I would've been with Analeigh, but still - good call). When I heard about Brooke Burke’s inevitable victory on Dancing With the Stars, I nodded in satisfaction.

When Leona Lewis won X-Factor at the tail-end of 2007, I was probably brushing my teeth or pumping gas or something. Before last year, I’d never heard of a Leona Lewis. I still haven’t caught a single second of The X-Factor, come to think of it. But that’s all moot now: Leona’s probably been all over your radios for the past year, bleeding love into your eardrums and sending her albums flying off the shelves into the hands of buyers (“Accio Spirit“?). Blessed with a strong, supple voice and cursed with having as much personality as a pile of dirt, Leona offers up a platter of midtempo pop and R&B tunes, with a few ballads and semi-dance worthy songs chucked in for the sake of variety.


Thankfully, I’m extremely easy to please when it comes to this sort of thing. Leona doesn’t break any new ground here, but it sticks to me frequently enough that she did well staying on the beaten path. Bleeding Love is about as “unique” as you’ll hear from this album - with thumping, tinny drum machines aping the heartbeat of, say, your washing machine, and a gauzy wrapping of organs and cellos pulsing beneath Leona’s soaring vocals. “You cut me open and I keep bleeding, I keep, keep bleeding love,” she gushes. Oh baby. On the flipside, single #2 - Better In Time - glides along on warm, cozy piano and strings to curl up tight in for the winter, with the drums taking on the sound of a doorknocker. It's a bit powdery, and it goes down smoothly for the most part (minus this pet peeve I have with pronunciation, where "without you" becomes "without'chu". "Thought I couldn't live without chew!" I guess nicotine withdrawal really is difficult).

Forgive Me and Misses Glass, meanwhile, take it upon themselves to be positioned a little too blatantly as the album reaches its center, serving as back-to-back attempts at offering variety. The former stomps along, ringing and humming and wheedling with the sort of face-slapping sass Leona just doesn’t possess. The latter rides on clap tracks, crystalline pings and shudders, intermittent punctuations of shattered glass, and some beastly presence screaming every now and then. It sounds frighteningly like Lil’ Jon, except it screams “BAYBAY!” instead of “WHAT?!”, “YEAH!”, “OOOKAY!”, or “SHAWTAAAAY!”.

Thankfully, the album’s other, other uptempo offering fares much better: Whatever It Takes offers the soaring, piping strings I love so much, pressed against soft organ and guitars trading duties back-and-forth. It’s generic lyrically (“They say we suck and we’ll die or something but whatever don’t listen I’m going to do anything for you wtf”), but Leona’s voice merges with the production to lift it up and send it flying.

Meanwhile, Take A Bow serves as the album’s obligatory Cry Me A River clone - right down to the loping, stalking beat and the synthesizers percolating in a slightly creepy, dramatic manner. Maybe Leona being stalked by a Britney clone would make her a more interesting person? Either way, I could take or leave it. Yesterday continues the gentle roll of Mariah Carey's ballad roll call from 2005 onward, from We Belong Together right up to I Stay In Love. Since I adore that sound, I love Yesterday - the usual ingredients are there, with the shimmering piano lilting delicately over the commonplace shuffle-stutter-snap, the big bridge where you can hear everything rising and swirling. I’m You turns out a sexy, seductive, mysterious slow-jam with subtle, shimmering harp and piano trickling down as gently as rivulets of water, the sitar embracing Leona’s lush harmonies like a sister and swaying. This is good stuff.

Then comes The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, poised and ready to pounce and bore the hell out of me. Picture a panther lurking, tensed, in the shadows, with a copy of War & Peace clutched in its maw. Sure, it’s soft and lush, with the same piano and gentle burble of strings it’s always had. But the title is still annoyingly flowery (I demand that the next person who covers this song at least shorten it to something like Yo’ Face or or something), and I don’t think anyone can knock away David Cook’s butt-whooping rendition off of last year’s Idol. Leona’s voice can carry a tender caress in this version, but then sometimes it seems like she goes from doing that to smacking you upside the head.

Thankfully, we have With You, My Angel Tattoo Is Irreplaceable to counteract that. It normally goes by the title Angel, which is pretty enough, but come on. You’ve got the same steady stutter as song after song before it, the same tender guitar plucks and loving strokes of the piano keys. You’ve got everything you need to lay the foundation for sweet, corny, cliché lyrics and an overall lifting sound that sticks in your ear. It’s like Yesterday: I love the overall sound it re-uses, so I can’t help but adore this song massively. The only downside? “Like Romeo and Juliet, families couldn’t divide us.” Umm, Leona, that’s sweet and all, but Romeo and Juliet wound up committing suicide. Picture a happier ending, dear.

As with any proper diva-in-training idol pop album, the final ingredient is the most crucial: The massive power ballads. As such, we’re offered three to swallow: I Will Be, Footprints In the Sand, and Here I Am. Sweet. I love power ballads. The latter two build and burst around the textbook-definition drum blasts, swelling orchestra, and fragile piano all constructed to hold a massive voice offering promises of support and love and sunshine. The former is the perfect piece for that big, American Idol-finale-style climax (even though it comes in at track three), taking the elements of the former and throwing guitars into the mix and upping the tempo a bit. It crests and crashes and envelops deliciously. You could probably see this on T.V. soon as a hyper-dramatic promo for some show or another, or as the choice of an idol-franchise contestant determined to have that big Moment.


Leona’s got a solid thing going here - the production offers nothing you haven’t heard before, true. But it offers something to people who like the current sounds of the softer R&B and pop on the radio today, and people who sink their claws into power ballads like cats with couch cushions. It won’t change the world or revolutionize music, but it serves its purpose well: Offer some good listening and showcase Leona’s voice.

The downfall of that approach is that Leona oftentimes comes off boring as hell on here. She’s got a great voice, but the lyrics err on the side of generic. That hasn’t stopped people before from putting their stamp on those generic lyrics and showing the person within. Beyoncé does it all the time. But Leona really doesn’t give any indication of what a Leona Lewis is other than this gorgeous thing that sings really pretty. And while she can occasionally put forth the necessary feeling required to get the songs off the ground, the other half of the time it sounds like she’s just frilling and trilling for the hell of it, or like she's just making the pretty sounds required for the words in front of her. Hopefully her next album offers up some idea of who we’re dealing with. She’s certainly got the goods to be successful and make a great album.

Keepers: Better In Time, I Will Be, Angel, Yesterday, Whatever It Takes

Tossers: Yo’ Face

Great Music to Play While: Lighting a fire under this chick’s butt.