Album Description
UK singer and songwriter Leona Lewis will release her debut album, Spirit, in America on April 8, 2008. For the first time, Clive Davis and Simon Cowell teamed up to sign Lewis to J Records/SyCo Music (Cowell’s joint venture with Sony BMG), and are both actively involved in the recording process for Spirit. Lewis, a 22-year-old London native and winner of the hit TV show the X Factor, a British talent show, has broken all-time sales records there with Spirit entering the album chart at Number One and becoming Britain’s fastest-selling debut ever. Spirit has scanned more than two million copies worldwide since its release in November. In addition, Spirit’s lead-off single “Bleeding Love” — co-written and produced by OneRepublic frontman Ryan “Alias” Tedder — was the U.K.’s best-selling single of 2007, claiming the Number One spot for seven weeks. Ushering in 2008, Leona received four prestigious Brit Award nominations, the UK equivalent of the Grammy Awards. Leona is currently in the studio recording two brand new tracks for the U.S. release of Spirit – “Forgive Me” by singer/songwriter superstar Akon and “Misses Glass” from the cutting edge producer/writers Madd Scientist and Rock City. Spirit is a mix of fresh pop and R&B, filled with “songs with a contemporary edge,” as Lewis puts it, ranging from soulful up-tempo numbers (”I’m You,” “The Best You Never Had,” and “Whatever It Takes,” which Lewis co-wrote) to ballads (”Better in Time,” “I Will Be,” and “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” — a song that Roberta Flack made famous). Tracks were written and produced by an array of top-notch hit-makers, including Tedder, singer/songwriters Akon and Ne-Yo, songwriters Josh Alexander and Billy Steinberg, and songwriter/producers Dallas Austin, Stargate, J.R. Rotem, and Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald — all of whom have worked with some of the biggest names in pop. In addition to gracing the covers of UK fashion publications like Harper’s Bazaar, US media are touting Leona as the artist to watch in 2008: People Magazine labels her “the UK’s hottest star in an “Introducing” piece,” Vogue presents her in their “People Are Talking About – The Vogue 25 Cultural Highlights of 2008″ and Entertainment Weekly declares her one of “8 To Watch in 2008.”People en Español
Winner of Britain’s “The X-Factor,” Leona Lewis debuts with a mix of pop and R&B. She is blessed with a vocal range that’s so versatile, in songs like “Better In Time,” that one may immediately compare her to Mariah Carey or Beyoncé Knowles, especially in “The First Time I Ever Saw You.” It’s not Lewis’s fault that her voice doesn’t distinguish her from these stars, but her producer, Simon Cowell (American Idol), plays it safe, and doesn’t add anything new to what Tommy Mottola achieved with Mariah decades ago. That’s not to say that the album is bad, but let’s just hope Leona Lewis’s sophomore effort shakes things up a bit more. –Ernesto Sánchez (People en Español 
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Price: $4.88
Rating: 4.0 (207 reviews)
5 Responses for "Spirit"
I HAVE NOT RECEVIED MY REFUND FOR THE CD LEONA LEWIS . HAVE GOT ONE E-MAIL SAYING WILL SEND REFUND ONCE , ONE CD IS SENT OFF. NO OTHER WORD BACK FROM NY SECOND E-MAIL , TO FIND WHAT’S THE UPDATE ON MY REFUND .
THOMAS
Rating: 1 / 5
Her voice is simply amazing. It deserved to vocalize much better contents. Yet there are some good tracts on the album. She definately shows promise.
Rating: 4 / 5
Okay first off she’s not the next Mariah Carey… She’s more like Christina Aguilera who has a beautiful voice but over singing all the time and songs that if you think Mariah’s songs are forgettable, you seen nothing yet! Leona Lewis has a good 13 track single of her one hit on this album “Bleeding Love” Spirit is a great title but where’s the SPIRIT? I didn’t hear it, worst track is “The First Time Ever Saw Your Face” She sound’s like she’s about to go to sleep and take you with her. I bought this album hoping it would be as good as Jordin Sparks album but was dispointed. That’s just my opinion some people love this low type of music. But I’m a more up tempo even on ballads.
Track by Track breakdown
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 Bow *
12.Footprints In The Sand *
13.Here I Am *
Leona Lewis gets *** for her Spirit
Rating: 3 / 5
Album is a great pop album, from a growing artist who has yet to show the world what she’s really capable of. Also, I find it amazing how Leona resembles a brown Tori Amos, on her album cover. Is it just me?
Anyhows, she’s a strikingly beautiful young woman who I’ll watch out for on the music scene.
Rating: 4 / 5
Mariah Carey, the most curious blowhard of the 90s – who morphed into a wonton wannabe hip-hop diva after her divorce from Svengali ex-husband Tommy Motolla all through the 00s – has nothing to fear from Leona Lewis. Sure, note for note, breath for breath, caterwaul to caterwaul, and coo to coo, Lewis apes early Carey’s whole persona, from the lightening-up of her skin tone in every publicity photo, to the frazzled Muppet that lay atop her head, to the skimpy wardrobe to the hilarious hand waterfalls that conclude every melismatic trill she spews.
But unlike Carey’s phenomenal rise – then fall – then phoenix-like rise again – Leona’s ambition might be short-lived; one would hope that people will see through the slick packaging and the con job they’ve been handed by Clive Davis (who never met a banshee he didn’t love) and especially Simon Cowell, who discovered Lewis via Britain’s “X-Factor” karaoke extravaganza.
Love or loathe her, Carey would be nothing more than a dime-a-dozen aspirant without that ex of hers pulling every last string and pouring countless millions and millions of dollars into her promotion. Sony was the house that Mariah saved. Mostly thanks to Motolla’s then music industry supremacy.
Lewis should be so lucky. While Cowell has had his hands in global pop acts – from the execrable (Il Divo) to the surreal (Teletubbies) – he ain’t no Tommy Motolla. Hell, Motolla isn’t even Motolla anymore. But, while it will be an injustice if Lewis’ rise were anything more than a laconic lapse of the public’s judgment, this is pure corporate pop machination at work; multi-million dollar promotions, hack songwriters, multiple producers, and a voice so emotionless and sterile she makes Sade sound like the Queen Of Soul. Hers is the kind of affected, over-the-top clangor that actually and ironically makes stars out of amateurs. So, we might be stuck for the long haul.
Now, perchance all of this wouldn’t matter if we were treated to, at the very least, something remotely catchy or even thought-provoking.
Unfortunately, for all the cosmetic surgery that went into the finished, over baked product, what we are encumbered with is a torture chamber in Muzak hell, which includes an oblivious, over-thought and dismal remake of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” – read by Lewis like a Wal-Mart shopping list – and a musical version of the pompous and gross “Footprints”, the head-scratchingly world famous religious monstrosity.
It’s like ordering fine Bordeaux but the waiter brings you plutonium-laced Kool-Aid instead. My grade: C-
Rating: 1 / 5
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