Back to Black

Additional Back to Black Information

Her brassy mix of emotive vocals tinged with 60's girl-group stylings, sly funk, and anguished jazz, sparked the New York Daily News to crown Back To Black a "marvelous debut that would do Etta James proud" while New Yorker Magazine called her "a fierce English performer whose voice combines the smoky depths of a jazz chanteuse with the heated passion of a soul singer," and Spin Magazine affirming "there's never been A British star quite like her."

Back To Black smolders with a bristling fusion of old school doo-wop/soul inflected uprisings, (the charismatic singer/songwriter wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album) brewing instant classics such as the Shirley Ellis influenced "Rehab," the Supremes tinged title song "Back To Black," the aching "Wake Up Alone," and the album's closer, "Addicted."

What Customers Say About Back to Black:

In my opinion,she's the BEST I've heard in the last 10 years. The songs have a more old time classic blues/jazz sound to them and Amy is just masterful in her renditions. Only can such beautiful music come from such a tortured soul. Got the album download last week for $8. I already have her other album, Frank, which I also enjoy immensely but I feel this is a superior album overall. If you only know her from her off stage antics and troubles, PLEASE do yourself a favor and give her a listen.

This is not a high-fidelity release. Amazing that she wrote or co-wrote all the songs. However, the lyrics don't speak to bubblegum sensibilities -- heartache, relationship upheavals, and personal downfalls inhabit these songs. I did want to note that the tracks produced by Salaam Remi (ex: Me & Mr Jones) sound much cleaner than those produced by Mark Ronson (ex: "Rehab") who tries a bit too hard to recreate that mono-ish 60s wall of sound. Amy Winehouse sounds incredibly authentic as the Detroit-via-London chanteuse who infuses each song with 60s Shangri-Las doo-wop plus some jazz and blues. It's as if some time machine dropped on your CD player, pushed you back 40 years, and ten lost gems just tumbled out. An incredible emotive talent with the perfect voice for this project.

Now if she could stay sober and drug free. Josh Stone gets all the credit but Winehouse has soul. Amy Winehouse can really belt out a tune. This CD rocks and is worth owning.

I'm very glad I did, what a voice. Regardless, I listened to the sample tracks and decided to get the CD. Since the clean version just blanked out the words (vs substituting them), I opted for listening to the explicit version in a more private setting. I don't remember what prompted me to look at this album. Previously, I was only aware of Amy Winehouse from what the news reported. Because of the sexual content, I only listen when kids aren't around.

Highly compressed music falling victim to the "louder is better" philosophy and breaking up into obvious static in the high frequencies is immediately apparent on anything but lower quality audio systems. A shame. Terrible production mars an otherwise good album. Some claim this was an attempt to achieve a "retro" or "vinyl" sound, but all it did was make the album unlistenable on better stereo and headphone systems.