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| Spirit | 
 enlarge | Artist: Leona Lewis
Label: J-Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.97
Buy New: $6.94
You Save: $12.03 (63%)
New (47) Used (22) from $6.05
Avg. Customer Rating:  163 reviews
Sales Rank: 36
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 702554
UPC: 886970255424
EAN: 8869702554240
ASIN: B0012TBGYC
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Bleeding Love | | • | Better In Time | | • | I Will Be | | • | I'm You | | • | Forgive Me | | • | Misses Glass | | • | Angel | | • | The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face | | • | Yesterday | | • | Whatever It Takes | | • | Take A Bow | | • | Footprints In The Sand (UK bonus cut) | | • | Here I Am (UK bonus cut) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
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 Beyonce 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 Sanchez (People en Espanol  ) Ganadora del concurso de talento britanico "The X-Factor," Leona Lewis debuta con una mezcla de pop y R&B aderezada de una tesitura de voz que en sus momentos mas agudos ("Better In Time") no deja de recordar a Mariah Carey, o que en sus notas graves ("The First Time I Ever Saw You"), pareciera ser Beyonce Knowles. No es su culpa que su voz no tenga distincion, pero su productor, Simon Cowell (American Idol), juega a lo seguro y no propone nada que Tommy Mottola no haya logrado decadas atras con Mariah y que decenas de seguidores han intentado hacer sin cambiar el mundo de la musica. Eso no quiere decir que el disco de Leona Lewis sea malo, pero por favor, esperemos que en su proximo disco proponga. --Ernesto Sanchez (People en Espanol )
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."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 158 more reviews...
 Album titled Spirit, but lacked Soul... April 17, 2008
76 out of 108 found this review helpful
Truly gifted artists (singers, painters, writers)have the ability to evoke emotion and reaction (positive and/or negative)from their audience.
Technically, she's pitch perfect and a very gifted singer. But after listening to the album (twice), I was left feeling apathetic - I neither loved it nor hated it, which in my opinion, is the least desirable audience feedback.
I didn't hear any originality, attitude or soul in any of her songs. Vocal ability isn't enough. In order to connect with the audience, you also need depth and substance.
But that's my opinion. I know there are a lot of Leona fans out there who feel differently so let the ad hominem attacks on me begin...
 Like Brushing Your Teeth With Furniture Polish April 20, 2008
66 out of 134 found this review helpful
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-
 She's got the pipes with elegant tone. April 8, 2008
52 out of 55 found this review helpful
Leona Lewis has become the first British female solo artist to top single and album US pop chart in 21 years.
The 22-year-old singer from Hackney has landed the Billboard Hot 100 chart Number One with her ballad "Bleeding Love".
The Americans have gone mad for this Mariah Carey-inspired ballad fest. All she needs to do is smile sweetly while she rakes in the dollars.
The last British female solo artist to do the same was Kim Wilde in 1987, with her cover of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
It's also the first time in 27 years that a British female artist has debuted at Number One in the US Top 100 Single Chart.
That feat was last achieved in 1981 by Sheena Easton with "Morning Train "(Nine To Five).
The last British woman to top the US album chart was Sade with "Promise" in 1986.
Leona Lewis is the quiet girl with a big voice who conquered the 2006 British "X Factor" ( equivalent of Amerivcan Idol), singing her way to glory with a spectacular set of lungs and endearing herself to the voting public with her sweet personality.
She stormed to number one British chart last Christmas with the winning X Factor single handed to her by the show's producers.
Lewis sings her heart out through stories of loves lost and conquered, with allusions to already established octave-vaulting female divas - Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera - audible in every warble.
She has the technical chops to pull off the imitation.
Tills ringing in their ears, Simon Cowell and Clive Davis have duly stuffed her debut album with songs which sound like offcuts from those other divas' repertoires - rent-a-gospel-choir here, the pretence of some tough R&B attitude there; "inspirational" lyrics and key changes preferred.
The result is an album of almost clockwork perfection - containing enough hits to keep her on the radio till next Christmas ("Better in Time" and "Whatever it Takes" are both as classy as the majestic "Bleeding Love"). But in the end they were able to craft only a bland, glossy pop album, strong on mid-tempo balladry and spiralling vocal gyrations, but short on hooks, innovation and personality.
"Bleeding Love" is the highlight of the album, a superb single that could almost be a sequel to Houston's 1987 classic "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)".
.."Spirit pays quivering lip service to ideas of beauty and talent and 'specialness', but is ultimately too manufactured even to be great manufactured pop. If Lewis is looking for the greatest love of all - public adoration - she will have to do better than this".Times.
Hard to love, hard to hate - but the whole world will buy it.
It's a testament, this, to Simon Cowell's business nous that he resisted a rushed covers album and instead enlisted powerful US music mogul Clive Davis to attract a bevy of America's most successful songwriters to pen a tune for the attractive British young lady.
Leona's success is assured and her talent plain to see, but her musical credibility is still hanging in the balance. Hopefully her second and third albums, which will surely follow, will not be an imitation of former success stories but an example of 21st century pop finery.
You Keep Me Hangin' on
The Very Best of Kim Wilde
Sheena Easton - Greatest Hits
The Ultimate Petula Clark
Promise
Whitney
A Spiritless Romp : Leona's Voice Deserved Far Better April 8, 2008
37 out of 78 found this review helpful
Leona Leona Leona. Followers of the UK music scene have had this album for a while now, and its great too see Miss Lewis attain fame so quickly within the United States. As a winner of a pop-music talent show, Leona is often compared to Mariah Carey, but in my opinion she's a very different singer in a very different era. Also, even though I'm no huge Mariah fan these days, Leona's voice probably has around 1/10th the range of Mariah's voice - so if you're into comparisons, that should give you some idea of what she sounds like.
In all probability, you are on this page after having listened to Leona's debut single "Bleeding Love". It's a great song, for what its worth (though many have compared it to Mariah's first single "Vision of Love" next to which this obviously pales in comparison). But I would be lying if I said this album was a `masterpiece' or a `classic' because it is not. Much like Kelly Clarkson's debut album, this is a perfectly adequate R&B-meets-Pop album that is tailor-made to have a few singles succeed on radio. If any of you have watched the show that Leona actually won, I thought her voice on the show was FAR better than what she sounds like on record - most of the tracks here don't let her explore the upper register of her voice, and she is relegated to singing some pretty generic R&B music (which may or may not work for you - it didn't work for me).
Also, the obvious Mariah comparisons cannot be avoided since the producers have pretty much traced lines around old Mariah songs in their attempt to come up with something new. Listen to "Here I Am", which seems like the long-lost twin of "Hero". This could have been a good thing, but here is more like a desperate thing. The same can be said of "Better in Time" and "Yesterday". You have GOT to listen to both these tracks back to back, as BOTH are built around Mariah's "Always be My Baby" - the first samples the beats, and the second is almost a direct lift in patches. This obvious dependence on Mariah's old hits to reconstruct new songs is fine - I'm all for it - but at least make it WORK! Here, they mostly sound tepid and uninspired.
The best track is perhaps "Take a Bow", with its Timbaland-sounding beats and word-flow. Destined to be a single, alongwith the frothy and likeable "Whatever it Takes". On "Homeless", Leona tries out her best Christina Aguilera impersonation, and this sounds like its from the same cutting board as "Beautiful". It's a pity the song isn't more memorable, and instead sounds like one of the other three thousand songs Christina has written about familial abuse and parental neglect. The album closer "A Moment Like This" is exactly the same song you suspect it to be - remember how they used to sing these to bookend those old seasons of American Idol. I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to include this done-to-death cover of an already used and tired song, but it totally does not work.
I find so many reviews of this album calling it `the greatest thing ever', and everyone wants Leona to be hailed as the next vocal savior of pop music. I don't think so. She is good, not great. Her debut single was excellent, but really, there is nothing else here that measures up to it. Actually the album reminded me of Janet Jacksons' latest "Discipline", where you had one amazing lead single ("Feedback") and the rest of the album turns out to be pure filler. Which is a huge disservice to Leona, because she has the potential and the voice to sing some amazing songs. Note to producers : Please don't give this woman generic Ashanti-sounding R&B songs to sing. She needs to have a whole album of pure jazz standards. Then watch her soar.
Leona is a wonderful singer, but this average album with its by-the-numbers tunes is not very good at all, especially in a season where you have so much good music out there. Try listening to a few samples, and try staying away from the hype. The marketing machine is in full gear when it comes to Leona, but I can't imagine how they can disguise the weak songs on this album, as hard as they might try.
Three Stars.
A complete bore! April 10, 2008
30 out of 50 found this review helpful
I laughed when I read that people actually cried when they listened to the CD. I did too - for the loss of the money wasted on the CD. Thank God that that money did not come from me. From track 1 all the way the end, the CD attempts to portray Lewis as a soul-less artist - the kind of one-dimensional diva who is destined to be manufactured. You do not have to skip any track because all the tracks are one long boring medley with arrangements that are designed to bring out the best in Lewis's de-spirited vocals. A Mariah Carey wannabe? Nah... this is wishful thinking. The only saving grace is perhaps the plastic CD casing which can be recycled - but the songs aren't. One of the worst debut of any artist I have heard.
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