Album Recommendation-"Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse

Hey World,
I was just listening to an awesome new album called Back to Black by Amy Winehouse. She one of those hipster British singers, kind of in the same tribe as Lily Allen, but not quite. I daresay, she's even better. I love "Rehab" and " You Know I'm No Good." I also really love "Love is a Losing Game" and "He Can Only Hold Her." To Describe her music, it's basically like if she was one of crazy gun-wielding Phil Spector's artists. Amy totally would have fit in to that whole 1960s, wall of sound, girl group thing of the Ronettes, the Supremes, and the rest of those broads.

You might be asking how I first heard of Winehouse. It all started on a gossip website called PerezHilton.com. Perez reported on a reported rivalry between Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse because apparently, Amy won the Brit Award that Lily wanted and then Lily was supposedly crying and acting all bratty or whatever. Anywho, the point is that I knew at the time who Lily was, but I didn't know who Amy was. At least not yet, anyway. Around the same time, Best Buy started showing commercials promotiong her album and showing snippets of the videos for "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good." I was curious about her. Amy and Lily Allen may both be British singers, but the similarities end there. Amy looks like one of those rocker chicks, full of tatoos and piercings. Lily, on the other hand, has a unique style, but she looks more normal than Amy. Despite her jaded, I've done some things attitude, Lily looks like virgin compared to Amy. Amy looks like she has lived nine lives, and the great thing is, her music sounds like it too.

Her voice is rich and soulful, whereas Allen's is a bit more mainstream.

Amy is definitely someone whose reputation precedes her, which isn't a compliment. She is apparently a hard partier, drinker, and drug user. It's kind of cool how she doesn't give a damn about how much she parties, but I just hope she's not one of those Jimi Hendrix/Janis/Jim Morrison-died before their prime types, because if she is not careful, she'll end up just like that, and yes, Amy is worthy enough to be compared to those people.

The sound arrangements on "Rehab" are superb, especially the drums and the working of the horns. The lyrics are funny and they are obviously words that Amy has said over and over: " You try to make me go to rehab, but I say no, no, no." The lyrics of "Love is a Losing Game" are more basic, but the arrangements and Amy's singing makes me want to just cry. Not to sound trite, but you feel the pain in her voice in that song. It's like you're going through it with her. In "You Know I'm No Good," again, the title looks like it came right out of Amy's mouth, and when you look at her stereotypical rebel look, you could imagine her saying those words.

I could listen to almost every song on the album, although I don't quite get the remix of "You Know I'm No Good." featuring Ghostface Killa. I think that she just added him just to give the song an edge because he is a rapper, but his part doesn't contribute anything different to the song. Amy should have made a real remix of the song by changing the beat and melody completely, like Lily Allen did with the remix of "Smile" at the end of her Alright, Still album.

To clarify, my praise of Winehouse is by no means a bashing of Lily Allen at all. I really like Lily's songs. It's just that I don't want the 2 artists to be lumped together because they are female, British, and about the same age. They are really different when you think about it, and variety, as we all know, or at least should know, is the spice of life.

More Later!