REVIEW: Leona Lewis's I Am

Rating: ★★★★ | B+

Leona Lewis is back, and she's got a fire under her feet. The UK X-factor winner has been largely ignored by the US market since her smash single "Bleeding Love" topped the charts for seven weeks in 2008, spurring her debut album, Spirit, to eight million in sales worldwide. Her follow-up, 2009's Echo, sold just 200k in the United States, and her third, 2012's Glassheart, failed even to crack the Billboard 200.

On I Am, Lewis faces this trend like a fighter, and goes a long way toward finding herself in the process. "First, it was heaven, everything roses and fire" she sings on the album's open track. On the second, she writes "I tripped and I stumbled, watched my world crumble. Sometimes you eat dirt, you live and you learn." And she has. "I'm a little wiser, reaching higher. It's a battle but I'm a fighter." Now, she's "coming back with the thunder." "This voice was getting loud, and it just wouldn't give in, cause I was made to sing."

No one could argue with the last point. With a mezzo-soprano range spanning four octaves, Lewis is widely recognized as one of the best vocalists of her generation, and frequently compared to superstars like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston. That talent is well-showcased on the new album, her voice soaring effortlessly on tracks like "You Knew Me When," "I Am," "The Essence Of Me," and "Power."

As Lewis well knows, however, a good voice and strong work ethic are not the sole ingredients for success in the music industry. Although the new LP seems unlikely, ultimately, to end Lewis's absence from the single charts, it is, overall, the highest-quality collection of tracks she has released to date. This is partly because, for perhaps the first time in her career, Lewis's team has managed to pair her with uptempo tracks that actually work with her voice ("Fire Under My Feet," "I Got You," "Another Love Song"). Despite her impressive vocal range, Lewis's range of repertoire historically has been quite narrow. She prefers traditional-schewing power ballads that allow her tone room to echo. I Am, although arguably still ballad-heavy, stretches Lewis farther than she has gone before, while still being her most thematically cohesive album to date.

That theme, of empowerment and fighting back, is one that always resonates with people, and Lewis, who could make the phone book sound inspirational, is a particularly strong messenger. It almost makes one feel guilty for believing, still, that Lewis has a bit more to offer than has been provided.

Suggested Singles: "I Am," "Power" (AC)