First Listen: Leona Lewis' new album

Do you wish that Celine would ditch Vegas for the recording studio? Do you rue the day that Whitney ever met Bobby Bloody Brown? Do you pray that Mariah would stop messing around with all those silly rappers? If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you'll probably find something to love on Leona Lewis' debut album.

The X Factor champion has been locked away in an LA recording studio for the last nine months making sure her debut LP doesn't follow Steve Brookstein's Heart and Soul into the 99p section at Woolies. You want the good news? Her hook-ups with a host of A-list hitmaking talent – Jam & Lewis (Janet Jackson, Human League), Dallas Austin (TLC, Madonna, Sugababes) and Diane Warren (everyone who's ever released a power ballad) – seem to have paid off.

DS presents a sneak preview of Leona's self-titled album, which will be released on November 5.

'Whatever It Takes'

This chipper slice of soul-pop, anchored by a surprisingly bone-shaking beat, is what we’d imagine Simon Cowell pops on the "hi-fi" if he’s having trouble getting up in the morning. "Oh blast! Not another bloody Idol audition," he probably cusses. "But at least I've got 'Whatever It Takes' to pep me up." Leona hits notes that will make Christina Aguilera blush; the orchestral washes ooze luxuriance and a gospel choir swoops in after two-and-a-half minutes to complete the pleasant-but-rousing effect.

'The First Time Ever I Saw Her Face'

Leona's string-drenched cover of the Ewan MacColl classic is as tasteful as an aromatherapy candle in a fetching shade of magnolia. "I felt the earth turn in my hand," she croons, proving once and for all that she can "do" restrained – something Celine Dion failed to convince us when she recorded this song in the late nineties.

'Yesterday’

Worry not! You will not be funding the Sir Paul McCartney Hair Dye fund by downloading this tune, for it is an original song. This 'Yesterday' is a smoochy R&B slow jam which sounds like the fourth single from a mid-nineties Mariah Carey album. Still, its soaring climax proves that La Lewis is no slacker in the vocal showboating department.