id this occur to anyone in the camp that Leona Lewis”Echo”is a difficult title for her second album? Ms. Lewis, a former winner of”X-Factor,”Simon Cowell’s British music talent show, had last year’s best-selling single in the United States”Bleeding Love,”a full - throated cry of injuries to resolve. The desire to repeat that success, of course, but an ultrasound is usually weaker than the original signal: more diffuse, less defined. Ms. Lewis, already face the pressure of a drop, certainly could have used a more promising theme.

It’s truth behind the name, though. Ms. Lewis reunited with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, the producers of”Bleeding Love,”for several of the album’s tracks, including the first single,”Happy.”Now floating near the center of the Billboard Hot 100 it’s another powerhouse ballad girded with subtle beats and gilded with assertiveness.”So what if it hurts me?”Ms. Lewis belts in the chorus.”So what if I break?”Its subject is the pursuit of happiness, which comes across as noble but vague.”Happy”is only an echo of”Bleeding Love,”and no amount of vocal heroism could otherwise.

Vocal heroism was Miss Lewis’s game, and plays relentlessly, with a natural enthusiasm evocative of classic Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.”Echo”succeeds best as a showcase for her extravagant instrument, with tidal outbursts of emotion. The album’s fundamental aesthetic reaches for the years 1990 to a hidden track:”Stone Hearts and grenades,”by Julian Bunetta and Andrew Frampton.

But Ms. Lewis strives for relevance here, with mixed results.”Love Letter”Kelly Clarkson is stoned;”Outta My Head”Lady Gaga is without the grin. She does better with the gleam of steel”Don’t Let Me Down,”which involved an assist from Justin Timberlake, and”I Got You,”which finds her coolly advising a lover:”Go ahead and goodbye’I'll be alright.”She’s thought that an echo, but it’sa good one.