Posted October 27, 200618 yr Album: Amy Winehouse Back to Black, ISLAND Reviewed by Andy Gill 5 STARS Published: Independent 27 October 2006 She's a brave lass, Amy Winehouse. It's rare to find any artist changing their approach between albums, and virtually unknown if their debut was a huge success; but for her follow-up to Frank, Winehouse has shifted her emphasis from jazz to soulful R&B. It's a measure of her talents that the shift should be so effective: it has focused her talent on a smaller target, with the result that the impact has been multiplied several times over. With Back to Black, she has nothing to prove; each time she starts a song, there's no need to impress with technique; just a direct, immediate expression of the core emotion. That directness applies equally to her lyrics, whose sexual frankness and pottymouthed articulation leaves no room for misunderstanding. Lines such as "He left no time to regret/ Kept his dick wet/ With his same old safe bet" act like turbochargers on the emotion, bringing an unmistakable modern slant to the loping Fifties R&B of songs such as "Back to Black" and "Me & Mr Jones", an ironic Noughties equivalent of Billy Paul's affair anthem. When the same candid attitude is applied to female sexual obsession in "Wake Up Alone", the result is like Millie Jackson crossed with Peggy Lee, a blend of unashamed assertiveness and languid vocal power. The lack of shame is probably the album's defining characteristic. From the opening "Rehab" to the closing "Addicted", there's none of the blame-shifting or hand-wringing apologia that American singers routinely employ. In the former - all fat horns, R&B feel and tubular bells punching up the lines - she refuses flip, therapeutic explanations for her melancholy and drinking ("There's nothing you can teach me/ That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway" - Donny, presumably); and in the latter, she gives equally short shrift to a flatmate's lover who smokes up all her stash without offering to replace it. If a man has treated her badly, as in "Tears Dry On Their Own", she doesn't whinge, just chides herself for placing too much faith in him: "I should just be my own best friend/ Not **** myself in the head with stupid men"; and it's clearly hard for her to feel too guilty, in "You Know I'm No Good", about keeping two lovers on the go. Productions, split almost equally between Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, are perfectly sculpted to reflect the updated soul mode, with Motown-like grooves, Otis-style horn arrangements, and a rich, smoky Southern soul feel. But, for all its musical purchase on the past, what sets Winehouse's album apart from those of her peers is its rejection of genre clichés. DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Rehab', 'Wake Up Alone', 'Back To Black', 'You Know I'm No Good', 'Me & Mr Jones'
October 27, 200618 yr I bought Frank, while Rehab is my single of the year so far. Therefore, I will be buying the album on Monday. :cheer:
October 27, 200618 yr Author I bought Frank, while Rehab is my single of the year so far. Therefore, I will be buying the album on Monday. :cheer: this is not the only 5 star review its got either
October 27, 200618 yr this is not the only 5 star review its got either I know The Word magazine has hailed it the best British album of the year (so far). I've yet to see less than a Four Stars (8 out of 10) review for the album.
October 27, 200618 yr Author I know The Word magazine has hailed it the best British album of the year (so far). I've yet to see less than a Four Stars (8 out of 10) review for the album. did you get the word mag this month? did your cd play?
October 28, 200618 yr is back the black the song from ac/dc ? or was ac/dc's song back in black? I think Back in Black was ac/dc
October 28, 200618 yr I bought and still listen to 'Frank'. I think 'Rehab' is terrific so I'll buy the album the next time I'm at the shops. (Though the only other song I've heard - 'Addicted' - I don't like. She performed it live years ago so hopefully the production has improved it.)
October 28, 200618 yr I heard her sing with Charlotte Church on tv. Her voice is terrible. She was hammered then, what do you expect? :lol:
October 28, 200618 yr I heard her sing with Charlotte Church on tv. Her voice is terrible. Total & utter tosh. Did you see her on BBC 3 performing with Paul Weller on the Electric Proms - singing I Heard It Through The Grapevine and See The Day, while duetting with the "modfather" on The Bitterest Pill? No, well I suggest you watch her again next Friday night when she appears on Later with Jools Holland. In my opinion she is the best new Brtish singer of the 21st Century bar none. As for the Charlotte Church show. Well what would you do when you are booked to appear on a show with a guest who is the father of your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend, and (to add insult to injury) be asked to perform a song by an artist you have previously said should have had his "dick cut off!" (for obvious reasons)?
October 28, 200618 yr Total & utter tosh. Did you see her on BBC 3 performing with Paul Weller on the Electric Proms - singing I Heard It Through The Grapevine and See The Day, while duetting with the "modfather" on The Bitterest Pill? No, well I suggest you watch her again next Friday night when she appears on Later with Jools Holland. In my opinion she is the best new Brtish singer of the 21st Century bar none. As for the Charlotte Church show. Well what would you do when you are booked to appear on a show with a guest who is the father of your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend, and (to add insult to injury) be asked to perform a song by an artist you have previously said should have had his "dick cut off!" (for obvious reasons)? After watching her once I came to the conclusion that she can't sing. Why on earth would I want to watch her again? :lol: You may like her but I don't. Everyone has different opinions of what is good and what isn't. Edited October 28, 200618 yr by x-The_Royston_Poisoner-x
October 28, 200618 yr As for the Charlotte Church show. Well what would you do when you are booked to appear on a show with a guest who is the father of your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend, and (to add insult to injury) be asked to perform a song by an artist you have previously said should have had his "dick cut off!" (for obvious reasons)? Ahah oh my gosh that took me ages to understand. Well confusing! But yes AW = LOVE :wub:.
October 28, 200618 yr As for the Charlotte Church show. Well what would you do when you are booked to appear on a show with a guest who is the father of your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend, and (to add insult to injury) be asked to perform a song by an artist you have previously said should have had his "dick cut off!" (for obvious reasons)? I worked out everything except who Lily Allen's boyfriend is...
