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| Spirit | 
 enlarge | Artist: Leona Lewis
Label: J-Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.97
Buy New: $8.48
You Save: $10.49 (55%)
New (46) Used (20) from $3.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  172 reviews
Sales Rank: 59
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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| Customer Reviews:
 The Stand-Out Debut of 2008 April 13, 2008
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
Leona Lewis is in that "Mature" League of Artist! She can without a doubt Sing on par with the likes of Mariah Carey, Madonna, Celine Dion, ect.
Her debut album Spirit is a mix of Both Mariah Carey's Debut album & Marvin Gaye's Landmark Album "What's Going On".
Every track is worth a listen, I'd say 10/13 Tracks could easily be a top 10 Hit. This is one of those Must Have CD's Check it out
I highly recommend this CD to fans of all types of music 9.5/10
 Beautiful voice and decent debut album April 15, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I previewed the album and I've seen her on the various talk shows: GMA, Oprah and Jimmy Kimmel. She has a good live performance. Leona has a beautiful voice, but "SHE REMINDS ME OF MARIAH". Leona's music doesn't include the rap lyrics yet, but down the road she'll succumb like all the other top female artist. When I think of a debut artist who took your breath away, Toni Braxton, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera come to mind. Her vocal sound does not stand out. I think over time she'll develop her style. It's a good debut album, all of the hot producers and songwriters they could find have put their thumbprint on it. As for her being labeled an R&B artist-not so much! This album is pure pop-sicle.
Bleeding Love Drum Sound Quality ( Yuk) April 16, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I just got the UK version a few days ago and
have listened closely to the sound quality, vocals
instruments etc.
On track 1, Bleeding Love, the distorted drum sound
effect sounds terrible!
The song is pretty good, unfortunately the drum distortion
effect makes it hard for me to listen to it.
Perhaps this is due to my high end system, perhaps this song
would sound better on a walkman or mp3 player or a radio???
Its unfortunate that the decision was made to use this sound.
I read other reviews and no one said anything about this.
The song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face sounds very close
to Roberta Flack`s version and sound quality is good.
I wished the same studio that mixed this song did Bleeding Love.
As someone else said, and I agree, the songs and sounds are so
similar to others that I also have to say, been there done that!
Cheers!
3 and a half stars! April 17, 2008
5 out of 13 found this review helpful
Look out world, Leona Lewis is here to steal some of the thunder from Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Leona was the winner of the UK show X Factor in 2006 and great things are expected of her.
Stunning model looks; check.
An assembly of top songwriters and producers; check.
A BIG voice; double check!
Lead-off single "Bleeding love" is a catchy upbeat song with violins, organ, and soaring vocals which has already topped the US and UK singles chart (and was the UK's biggest selling single of 2007).
As expected, the album is ballad heavy. Other standouts are "Take a bow" (no, not the Madonna hit, but a synth string filled ballad), "I will be" (a stunning cover of an Avril Lavigne song), the R&B ballad "I'm you" (nice Spanish guitars, harps and skittery beats and great harmonies), and a tender rendering of "The first time ever I saw your face".
"Yesterday" sounds like something from Mariah's repertoire, right from the breathy falsetto, down to the beats, while she sounds very much like Whitney on the gospel tinged (thanks to the choir) "Whatever it takes", and on the bouncy pop "Forgive me". In fact, the latter wouldn't go amiss on either of Whitney's first 2 albums.
I caught the episode of X Factor where she sang the Jackson 5's "I'll be there" and she seems a very likeable person. I felt she should win and was glad she did. However, a large chunk of the album sounds like Leona was made to really study Whitney and Mariah's debuts and is really nothing (musically) special.
No doubt Leona is a fantastic singer and this album will sell millions, it's calculated to, (the album just debuted in the US at #1, making her the first British female since Sade in 1986 to achieve that feat), but one has the feeling that a few albums down the line, she'll finally get to release something that really reflects who she is, and she'll be saying then how this album wasn't really her.
Decent effort, incredible vocalist, but somewhat bland April 25, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm not bashing this girl at all, but Spirit - in my opinion - could've been better had it been chock full of better material as a whole rather than a handful of good tunes and tepid, by-the-numbers Hip Hop-inspired pop filling up the remainder. That's not detracting from Leona Lewis herself, who is undoubtedly a great and extremely talented singer (albeit devoid of much personality, but that's part of her appeal and marketability). I do think "Bleeding Love" is a decent song, and one of the album's highlights, however I think it could do with a better, catchier chorus besides simply "Keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding love"; repetition is good, and few lyrics during can be acceptable, especially during a chorus (Britney Spears' "Gimme More" became an international smash hit simply using the words "Gimme gimme more" over and over again), but although Lewis delivers a marvelous, lightly-sung vocal, there seems to be something missing here that would give it a magical finish. Other standouts include "I Will Be," which is somewhat cheesy but one of the best moments here, both production-wise as well as performance, and even the few upbeat tracks (the synth-driven "Whatever It Take" and "Take a Bow"), despite sounding somewhat bland in terms of originality (Lewis sells better as an amazing vocalist on ballads, not by-the-numbers Hip Hop beats). Despite its flaws, Spirit does showcase its artist's brilliant vocals, which seems to be the main selling point here; with a few better songs, I think Spirit could've lived up to Lewis herself.
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