Leona Lewis: 'Echo'

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If any contemporary popstar doesn't deserve to be socked in the chops at a book signing, it's Leona Lewis. Since winning The X Factor in 2006, she's radically recalibrated the potential career trajectory for any talent show star, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, selling more than six million copies of her debut album Spirit, and giving us a bona fide modern classic in the form of 'Bleeding Love'. The Hackney lass's only flaw? That she's tended to show all the charisma of a toddler taking a cat-nap.

However, there's no faulting her ability to belt out a big old pop song - something which Echo, her eagerly-anticipated second album, delivers in spades. As befits an artist with Lewis's industry slump-defying sales figures, it features production from the cream of today's hitmakers, including Ryan 'Bleeding Love' Tedder, John 'Patience' Shanks and Max 'Bloody Everything' Martin, while Justin Timberlake co-writes, co-produces and contributes backing vocals to the lovely 'Don't Let Me Down'. Echo leans more towards soft rock than her R&B-tinged; debut, but it's no less bombastic, filled with beefy beats, swelling strings and epic crescendos. The (melo)dramatic high point? Lewis wailing "Saaave me!" over the ludicrously overwrought, choir-assisted climax on 'Broken'.

But it's not just the production that's a tad O.T.T. - the songs themselves are full-to-brimming with emotional excess. Lewis bags co-writing credits on nine of these 14 tracks - seven more than on Spirit - and for a woman in a long-term and by all accounts loving relationship, she's remarkably preoccupied with breaking up. And breaking up in such tumultuous fashion! A selection of typical lines from Echo: "I cannot function with you." "My heart it beats, but inside I'm freezing." "There's a heartbreaking chill running through my bones." That the album features a hidden bonus track called 'Stone Hearts and Hand Grenades' pretty much says it all.

Subtle it ain't, but there's no denying that Echo is effective. The likes of lead single 'Happy', the Middle Eastern-tinged 'Brave' and 'I Got You', with its swooping chorus hook, are as compelling as midtempo, MOR pop music come. A cover of Oasis's 'Stop Crying My Heart Out', meanwhile, is as satisfying as a sponge pudding on a chilly winter evening. Several songs slip into blandness, and a certain saminess does creep in at times, but even the less memorable moments are salvaged by Lewis's consistently impressive vocal performances. Best of all, Echo features a genuine surprise in the form of 'Outta My Head', a Eurodancey floor-filler with a "F**k you!" lyric and a chorus Cascada would sell their singer for.

It will be interesting to see how Lewis - still remarkably callow as a live performer - tackles these grandiose songs on her first arena tour next year. Until then, this most unassuming of superstars should congratulate herself on a job well done. Echo may lack a moment as transcendent as 'Bleeding Love', but it's more cohesive, more consistent and more contemporary-sounding than her debut. A few staging lessons with Brian Friedman, and perhaps some kind of an agreement with Big Tony, and she'll be set fair.