307: Back to Black, by Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse (United Kingdom)
Back to Black (2006)
11 tracks, 35 minutes
Spotify ∙ iTunes

Nowadays, it’s easy to remember Amy Winehouse as a caricature of herself. Fame was not kind to her and her experiences with hard drugs and alcohol turned her into a tragic figure of ridicule, ruined her ability to make music live or on record with any consistency, destroyed her health and eventually led to her all-too-young death at 27. For many, this ending was not a surprise.

What a disservice that legacy is to such an amazing talent. Listening to Back to Black for the first time in years, it really brings home just how special Amy Winehouse was – this is how she deserves to be remembered.

When she started to get noticed with her debut album Frank in 2003, she was a revelation. Here was a teenage jazz singer making music in the tradition of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, but doing so in a way that was submerged in every way in the modern, inner-city London of her upbringing. Her voice was simply astounding, and absolutely oozed talent. Every note was struck with the utmost class and the sheer fun of it all was palpable in every syllable. The blend of jazz, soul and hip-hop beats was an unusual combination to get popular attention, but her fame slowly spread, and she became known as one to watch for the future.

Then, three years later, Back to Black came out and everything exploded. Suddenly Amy Winehouse was the biggest singer in the world. The jazz of Frank was scaled back in favour of the soul and R’n’B sound, but it suited her just as well. Although only three years had passed, her sound was much more mature, while her lyrics were just as naïve. The combination is a super effective one, and, as before, it is that voice that turns it from good music to magic. She delivers every single line with the exact weight and inflection to give it maximum impact, no matter what emotion she conveys. She can pour her heart out to the point where she sounds near tears, to singing with laughter in her voice; she is sultry, jeering, arrogant, sweet, pleading, satisfied, all of them perfectly painted with the subtlest of changes in her voice. There are so many top-notch songs on the album too, it’s packed with them – ‘Rehab’, ‘You Know I’m No Good’, ‘Back to Black’, ‘Me and Mr Jones’, ‘Tears Dry on Their Own’, and the deluxe edition also included brilliant covers of the Zutons’ ‘Valerie’ and Toots and the Maytals’ ‘Monkey Man’. Simply fantastic.

The album was a worldwide hit. She got number ones in 17 countries. It was in the Top 200 album in the UK yearly charts for 11 years, and is the 13th best-selling album in the UK ever. And just listen to it – it’s clearly deserved. Back to Black not only secured Amy Winehouse’s position in music history, but also launched the careers of many artists – the pop music of today would not sound the same if it was not for Amy Winehouse.

This is how she deserves to be remembered. A masterful singer, a revolutionary artist and a supreme talent. A young woman with so much potential, gone too soon. Listen to Back to Black, listen to Frank and remember Amy Winehouse for the amazing art she produced, not the tabloid-fuelled demonisation of her illness.