[Tom4784]

Leona Lewis - Echo

My opinion changes regurlarly with Leona Lewis, I remember really liking her debut album when it first came out and then I remember hating her. I think this album is better then her first but there's still a lot of problems here.

There's still an overabundance of ballads here which gives the album a repetitive feel, some of the ballads are quite good though. 'My Hands is probably my favourite out the rest, It's got a very good catchy chorus which will stick in your head. Another of my favourites was the single 'Happy', I despised it when I first heard it when it debuted but it's like an extremely slow grower because when I listened to the album I enjoyed it a lot more then I did before. It's still a bad choice of single though since there are more catchier ballads on the album.

Surprisingly there are up tempo songs on the album, the main one being 'Outta My Head' which is rather dance-y and is kinda like a more innocent Rihanna track. It's got number 1 written all over it. The other more uptempo track is 'I Got you' which technically only really picks up the pace in the chorus but still It's quite catchy and I can see it being a successful top ten single.

The traditional cover song on this album is 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' by Oasis. This is very much Run 2.0 down to the key change and the gospel choir to the understated beginning. For that reason I couldn't really like it since it's such an uncreative cover, As far as Leona Covers go 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' is still her best.

What's evident with this album is with the exception of a few differences it's pretty much a template of her first album. The main differences being this time are the few up tempo tracks and the fact that it's not so R'n'B based. There IS some growth here but for the next album I'd like Leona to try some more things and experiment with more up tempo tracks and genres.

As far as a pop album goes it's not bad. It's inoffensive and easy to listen to and it's quite catchy. It's not an album I can see myself listening to for long though as the repetitiveness does drag on it. Ultimately it's poppy, shallow and unlikely to change the landscape of music but as far as some pop music goes it ain't bad.

Reccomended Songs
Happy
I Got You
Outta My Head
My Hands

Final Score: 7/10