Amy Winehouse: BACK TO BLACK

I recently bought Amy Winehouse's second album, the Grammy Award-winning "Back to Black." I bought it, not because I particularly cared more for her music than, say, Lupe Fiasco's (If you are what you say you are...), but because I realised last week I have something incredibly in common with her. If you know me and you know her, you'll know what it is--and no, it isn't the crack itch. Once I realised we shared two initials, I decided I had to buy her CD. Sounds silly, but it's the absolute truth.

I knew the song "Rehab," but none of the others, and I only recently grew aware of the fact it swept the Grammy's with four wins (four right?). It's only 10 tracks long, but it was on sale at Target for $11.58, so I said, "SCORE! I still hate the radio, and I'm tired of my mix CD's!" and gave it a buy.

Upon first listen, I easily determined there were four songs that stood out, and I immediately grew skeptical as to why all ten songs garnered the win for album of the year. Four songs is less than half. And since my opinion on her music was obviously identical if not superior to the entire Recording Academy's, I couldn't see why they voted on her so favorably.

But much like the crack-album release of last year (Justin Timberlake's FUTURE SEX/LOVE SOUNDS, if you didn't know--not because he necessarily did crack, but because his music IS like crack), this album got better with every listen.

5 Reasons Why Amy Winehouse's BACK TO BLACK is worth repeat audio exposure:
1. The songs "Rehab," "You Know I'm No Good," "Back to Black," and "Tears Dry on Their Own," not necessarily in that order.
2. The record is produced by Mike Ronson, who we (and by "we," I mean "I") also love.
3. It's her singing. No electronic gizmos altering her voice to make it sound like it's coming through a space heater. Sometimes there are warbles, but there's always emotion, and she's mostly all divine.
4. It's great driving music. It's great shower music. It's great cooking music. It's great lounge music. It's great eating, talking, hanging out and listening music. It's great music.
5. Even though she originally said "No, No, No," she did, eventually, go to rehab. And we should support that.

THE ARTIST: http://www.amywinehouse.co.uk/