Amy Winehouse

Before she drank herself to death, Amy Winehouse nearly finished her new album. Fortunately the family thinks it is as good as “Frank” and “Back To Black” otherwise we might have never heard it. I do not agree with the family, but I am glad that the album is released anyway. “Lioness” is different in style from “Back To Black”. The new cd is softer, more soul and jazz and a lot less recalcitrant than her previous album. I suppose Amy matured in her music. There are two songs that we already knew, “Tears Dry” and “Valerie”. I tend to dislike new versions of songs that I already know and also this time the alternative versions are less interesting than the versions that I first heard. The other songs are soft and soulfull, one unfortunately has a rapper. The songs are nice, but they do not grab me like the troubled-lady songs of her previous album. For a pop cd “Lioness: Hidden Treasures” is not bad, but I think “Back To Black” will find its way into my player a lot more frequently than this post-mortem album.

Links: Amy Winehouse, Island Records Group

Because I don’t listen to popmusic, for a long time I only knew Amy Winehouse from hearing that she is a troubled teenager that drinks too much and uses too much drugs. A while ago I heard “Rehab” played in the gym where they only play hiphop and cheap dance music and I wondered what would make such a weird and wonderfull song being popular enough to be played in the gym, when I noticed that it was sung by Amy Winehouse. Later I heard to other songs of Winehouse which I also liked, so I decided to have a better listen to the young woman. I think I downloaded her first and not too good album and left Winehouse for what it was. Now there is another nice song on the radio, so I figured she must have a good and new album, only to find out that she has made only two cds yet. “Rehab” is on the 2006 album “Back To Black” which has now been rereleased with an extra cd with some other tracks. For the better too, since the album itself is below 35 minutes! Anyway, I don’t suppose I would have to review this album for listeners of popmusic, because if you know the hits like “Rehab” or “You Know I’m No Good”, you know the style of Winehouse well enough to know if you like it. But my normal audience may -like me- have ignored Winehouse for being a popstar, so just a few things. The music goes from soul to jazz and blues with a little triphop (or whatever), ballads and crazy cheerfull songs. Most songs are rather melancholic or relatively dark in concept for popmusic at least. I still don’t know what makes Winehouse so popular under the larger audience that only wants simple music, but I can only say that I love her weird style and concept and this album is surely something else that I can put in the player when I don’t feel like playing my usual kind of music.