Back to Black

Back to black is so brilliant musically, both Amy's songs and her performance of them. The only weak spot is the use of needlessly explicit lyrics, for example in Me and Mr. Jones, "mockery" would have been so much more timeless than "f-ckery", and really would have made as much or more sense. The needless use of the f word grates a bit, and simply makes it impossible to play this song in public or in front of most audiences, and it's such a shame not to be able to play this musically brilliant song for one's kids.
Amy Winehouse is an absolutely amazing talent, her rapid descent into drugs and anorexia has been so heartbreaking. If only she can get free of the drugs, alcohol, and the severe anorexia (she now looks nursing-home thin, like a wire stick figure with an increasingly clownish wig on top). If only she can get free of the destructive hangers-on and the paparazzi who appear to continually hound and provoke her for dramatic photos.... Amy, you are a wealthy woman now, don't let your hangers on eat up all your money and use you up for drugs. You deserve to have a beautiful life, to own your own beautiful healthy life, and to thrive. Please take a long-term health retreat, hire the necessary medical and support staff to keep the drugs out and help you get clean and get your life back, do it someplace you like like Spain or Florida or the Caribbean, you need to be in a gated place with guards to keep out the hangers on, drug-users, and paparazzi, medical supervision, and healthy meals prepared for you, so you can finally take time for YOU, enjoying music to your heart's content, and getting clean! You can afford it and you deserve it. The world doesn't want to lose you. P.S. You never needed to lose weight, you were so beautiful to begin with, with an absolutely knockout figure and face. The world prays for your recovery and for a future of happiness, health, and independence for you. Good luck and God bless!

The first song has fun lyrics and is musically interesting. The second cut is just OK. Every one of the remaining cuts are real nothingness filler.

I love this CD and play it over and over in the car, my iPod and at home. This is funky, soulful jazz, the kind that you sing along with. I love the lyrics and the songs are retro-sounding. Clean up Amy, we need more of you!

Sounding for the world like a record straight out of the Motown era, "Back to Black", Amy Winehouse's second major LP, debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200 and quickly went double platinum after winning five Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year (producer Mark Ronson even took home a Grammy for Producer of the Year). The cover of the album features an alluring photograph of Winehouse, her face sporting pale lips, heavy charcoal eyes and a dramatic beehive, looks au courant of 60's fashion that have become the singer's trademark. Her powerhouse voice brings to mind the voluptuous, sensational pipes of yesteryear singers Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughn. The rousing brass section, toe-tapping beats, tsee-tsee-tsee of cymbals and seductive saxophones have one listening for hours on end, particularly those of a generation long since passed who relish the sounds that precluded the rock n' roll revolution.

The album opens with the lively "Rehab", a song that would ironically foretell Winehouse's troubles with substance abuse and seems a little out of place on an album largely about love and loss. The energy continues with "You Know I'm No Good", a strangely upbeat tune about infidelity and "Me and Mr. Jones", a slow and sexy strut about a woman who insults yet still pines for her crooked man. "Just Friends" sails in nice and easy, a story about an affair that's not meant to last which segues nicely into "Back To Black", a lament of a lover gone back to the other woman. The moodiness continues with "Love Is A Losing Game", a title that speaks for itself as far as the lyrics are concerned (self professed, profound/til' the tips were down/though you're a gambling man/love is a losing hand). "Tears Dry On Their Own" has a woman healing and learning from a failed relationship (he walks away/the sun goes down/he takes the day but I'm grown/and it's ok/in this blue shade/my tears dry on their own). "Wake Up Alone" shares similar sentiment with fantastic melody expertly saturating the heartache of the lyrics (he gets fierce in my dreams seizing my guts/he floors me with dread/soaked to soul he swims in my eyes by the bed/pour myself over him/moon spilling in/and I wake up alone). "Some Unholy War", "He Can Only Hold Her" and an unlisted version of "You Know I'm No Good" featuring Ghostface Killah round out the disc.

Lately Winehouse has been fodder for the tabloids due to her tumultuous marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil (still serving time for assault and bribery) as well as her physical altercations with the press and drug abuse. In June of 2008, Winehouse was hospitalized and doctors discovered she was beginning to show early warning signs of emphysema, her lungs functioning at only 70% capacity due to her excessive smoking of crack cocaine. With a laundry list of problems (one of which is rumored to be an eating disorder), Winehouse has shriveled in the eye of the public, her gargantuan mound of hair piled atop her ghastly thin frame threatening to force the singer to come crashing to the ground. My greatest concern is that one day soon we will wake to hear of her untimely death and wonder what might've been instead of seeing her pick herself up and rise once again, clean and sober and topping the charts.

Bottom line: If you like the golden oldies with a new and sensational twist or you're of a younger generation and you're tired of the same-old-same-old, "Back To Black" is the album for you.

It is a sad comment on our society that English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse's self-destructive lifestyle is receiving more media attention than her astonishing, critically-acclaimed singing. Just today she became the focus (and the newest poster girl) of the world's anti-smoking hysteria. Back to Black follows Amy Winehouse's jazz-influenced, 2003 debut album, which drew immediate comparisons to Billie Holliday, Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, and Macy Gray. Back to Black reveals Winehouse's more distinctive, classy-yet-hip, sultry, retro style. The album resulted in several international hits, "Rehab," "You Know I'm No Good," "Back to Black," "Tears Dry on Their Own," and "Love Is a Losing Game," and has a jazz/soul/R&B/hip-hop sound. "Tears Dry on Their Own" features backing from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's 1967 hit, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and the title track draws its inspiration from The Supremes and The Ronettes. Hip-hop inspired "You Know I'm No Good" includes guest vocals from Wu-Tang Clan member, Ghostface Killah. Songs like "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good" are more than mere posturing. They are authentic bad-girl songs drawn from personal experience. It is unfortunate that tabloid minds are more interested in Amy's personal struggles with drugs, depression, relationships, bad hair days, and cigarettes than in her amazingy talents as a singer. Listen without judging this tortured artist. Complete album tracks include:

1. Rehab 3:33
2. You Know I'm No Good 4:16
3. Me & Mr Jones 2:31
4. Just Friends 3:11
5. Back To Black 4:00
6. Love Is A Losing Game 2:34
7. Tears Dry On Their Own 3:05
8. Wake Up Alone 3:41
9. Some Unholy War 2:21
10. He Can Only Hold Her 2:48
11. You Know I'm No Good (Remix) 3:22

G. Merritt