Amy Winehouse is one of those artists who hasn't yet quite been recognised as the musical genius she is. Her latest album Back To Black ramps up the commercial side of her music and brings a soft-focus R'n'B-ish, swing vibe to the songs, pushing her into the realm of pop more so than ever before. This move could give her the commercial success she is sure to achieve eventually, and comes from her own changing musical tastes.

 

1. 'Rehab'

The first track off the album is a stonking Motown-esque number from Ms Winehouse, which talks rather aptly about people vainly trying to force her to go into rehab and showing the versatility of what she can do when given the right songs to sing. An extremely likable song. (5 stars)

 

2. 'You Know I'm No Good'

Winehouse's voice lilts and slides about on this sexy, throaty track. The song sounds faintly Eastern European in origin, and you do get a vibe that the instrumental could have been used as a track to an incredibly sexual tango, despite the incongruity of the "Stella and fries" lyrics. (5 stars)

 

3. 'Me and Mr Jones (F*ckery)'

The third track gives us a gospel-tinged funky, slow-tempo number that again is very reminiscent of the music of the '50s. You can almost imagine Winehouse with bouffant bobbed hair and a tight little number on as she berates her lover on this Etta James-esque number. ( 5 stars)

 

4. 'Just Friends'

One of the prettiest tracks on the entire album, this is an almost Christmassy number which intrudes upon the album as a bit of a surprise. It's an utterly chilled out ballad, full of emotion, sax and Winehouse's trademark throatiness. ( 5 stars)

 

5. 'Back To Black'

Winehouse is converting me more and more to her unique, funky style as the album progresses. 'Back To Black', the title track off the album, is yet another brilliantly enjoyable, swing-style track that shows off Winehouse's unusual vocal trills and stylings. ( 4 stars)

 

6. 'Love Is A Loser's Game'

It seems that Winehouse has firmly planted her feet down in the medium of gentle, easy-going swing music, and veered far away from her previous work in jazz. This track epitomises that change in sound perfectly, as the new swing songstrel ballads it up. ( 5 stars)

 

7. 'Tears Dry On Their Own'

Whereas artists like Katie Melua and Jamie Cullum manage to make jazzy slow-beat music incredibly dull and tedious, Winehouse goes the other way, making tracks like this one exciting and accessible to people like me and you, despite the innate similarity between the work these artists all do. ( 4 stars)

 

8. 'Wake Up Alone'

Winehouse's voice trips and lilts over this jaunty little pop song, full of passion and pleading in this desperately sad explanation, as she talks of how her lover "swims in my eyes" but she "wake up alone" when he refuses to be with her. ( 5 stars)

 

9. 'Some Unholy War'

There's much more of an R'n'B vibe to this jazzy little number, which despite being typically slow-moving (the entirety of the album is pretty much conducted at this pace) is still pretty enjoyable, thanks in no small part to Winehouse's fantastic vocal peculiarities. ( 3 stars)

 

10. 'He Can Only Hold Her'

As the album comes to a conclusion, this penultimate track ramps up the Three Degrees-esque pace and sound, and Winehouse's vocal begins to sound like something completely different, a stronger, less nasal, less throaty version of herself, attempting the 'sexy' sound. ( 4 stars)

 

11. 'Addicted'

Winehouse's natural, throaty, harsh vocal comes back into play at the end of the album with this quirky and fabulous little track that, peculiarly, makes one think of Petula Clark's 'Downtown' a tad when listening to it. ( 5 stars)

 

Amy Winehouse is, and has always been, a breath of fresh air in the music industry. Her music is innovative and interesting, her voice strange and different from the usual. This sets her apart from somewhat easy-listening contemporaries Cullum and Melua, and makes her stuff listenable, relaxed and interesting. Back To Black is a lusciously interesting album and one that Winehouse should be very proud of. Debut album Frank was great, but Winehouse has really made her mark with this album. It'll be interesting to see where she goes next - death metal?

 

5 stars

 

What you think of the review, and did they rate the songs right?