Closed off from love didn't need the pain...
This was the album I was expecting Mariah Carey to make. Actually, it pretty much is Mariah's debut album reincarnated as a soccer-mom car record.
Leona Lewis right now has the Oprah-approved mainstream pop single of 2008 so far, "Bleeding Love". The Londoner is the first big export from Britain since the Spice Girls, and while her career track follows a similar course, the result is miles different. A graduate of the BRIT school, the arty trade-school formerly home to Amy Winehouse,
Spirit is a totally by-the-books adult R&B-based pop that supposedly doesn't sell anymore. Heck, Mariah had to get all "street", so this was definitely a surprise. The album is seamlessly produced to almost being sterile. Lewis definitely has the singing chops, and shows off her range in just about every song on here. It's no surprise that Simon Cowell and Clive Davis produced, since everything is spot-on - no rough edges or offensive moods. There's only love, lack of love, then love again. The songs here don't reach anything above a simmer, which these days of rap-infused soul and emo-rock, are actually welcome. So "Bleeding Love", written by teen-pop idol Jesse McCartney and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder (of "Apologize" fame) is Leona's "Vision Of Love", second single "Better In Time" is her "Can't Let Go". Both deal with intimate relationships, albeit with nuanced tacks - in "Bleeding" she hold on to a dying love, while in "Better" she moves on. Nothing really more. In fact, the one could have easily evolved from the other. "I Will Be" is the standard "I'm only here for you" power ballad that usually is more effective if it wasn't as common as on here - 80% of the CD is showstopper ballads. Occasionally a more upbeat moment comes, like "Forgive Me", which is in effect Leona's "Someday", and "Misses Glass", but oddly they are stuck together in the middle of the album. But even with these, there is nothing that can't be misinterpreted by the broad audience Lewis (and more importantly gurus Cowell and Davis) crave. The most "edgy" moment on the record is a bare-boned cover of Roberta Flack's "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face", only that they didn't turn it into a full or orchestrated "I Will Always Love You" bombast. The only kowtow to current trends is the singsong delivery of "Take A Bow", which now is overshadowed by Rihanna's similiarly themed (but different) song of the same name. And to close out the set, "Footprints In The Sand", which plaigarizes from the ubiqitous wall poster, and "Here I Am" hammer a overbearing moral punch. And any bit of bad vibes (the UK track "Homeless" or the remake of Davis' headbutter Clarkson's "A Moment Like This") have been exorcised for the US release. But Spirit was never meant for deep thought, only an emotional backdrop to a certain audience, and to them, it does deliver. We've finally hit the "Nostaglia for the early 90's" moment.
Spirit is very well executed, and Leona has an amazing voice. You can put this on when you're having your mother over for lunch. Hopefully with this success Leona can let a little guard down and not expect to blow us away with every crescendo. Oh yeah. She'd REALLY be Mariah then.
Spirit hit #1 on both the US and UK albums Chart.
"Bleeding Love" hit #1 pop, #1 Adult top40, #2 Adult Contemporary, #107 R&B, and #1 in the UK.
"Better In Time" so far has reached #62 pop, and #2 in the UK.
"Footprints In The Sand" made #2 in the UK as the "B-side" of "Better In Time".
"Yesterday" so far has reached #117 pop.
You can pick up Spirit at websites like here and here.
And here's Leona's first single, "Bleeding Love"...
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