Music |
Amy Winehouse
By
Published: Jan 01, 2007
Category:
Soul
It’s damn rare that a three-minute pop confection digs under your skin, lyrics sticking to the tip of your tongue, a mental itch clawing at you so insistently it can only be scratched by compulsively punching replay in your car stereo until no one but strangers or card-carrying masochists will brave your passenger seat.
To indulge that kind of craving, you require a taste of the good stuff.
Like “Rehab," by Amy Winehouse.
The first single off Winehouse’s first American release, “Back to Black,” is a deceptively simple blend of Motown-inspired rhythms, jazz and soul, the horns and smoky vocals almost obscuring the decidedly 21st century slant of the lyrics: "They try to make me go to rehab/I say no, no, no." But what starts as a smart-ass taunt gives way to a broken-hearted plaint that could have been ripped from an uncensored version of the ’60s girl-group songbook — she clings to the bottle as her only buffer against the certain knowledge that her man is heading for the door. If only Britney Spears could have expressed her angst so well (and yes, someone’s already posted a mock video of Spears "singing" the song on YouTube).
And “Rehab" is just one pitch-perfect track from “Back to Black.” Despite the time travel slant, the album is far from one note. There’s a cutting cheater’s confession with a trace of hip hop flavor added by collaborator (and Wu-Tang Clan member) Ghostface Killah ("I’m No Good"), a dose of pure doo-wop ("Me and Mr. Jones") and a Wall of Sound torch song — the title track — that even Phil Spector could love.
Surprisingly, there’s no kitsch in Winehouse’s retro, unlike the current fleet of ’80s revivalists jamming up the airwaves (Memo to My Chemical Romance: Queen called, they’d like you to surrender your copy of "A Night at the Opera" ASAP). Winehouse has the pipes to do a Shangril-La proud, but she goes simple imitation one better with jazz inflection reminiscent of Billie Holiday, and, on occasion, a touch of a cockney accent. [To buy the CD of ‘Back to Black’ from Amazon, click here. For the MP 3, click here. For the MP3 of "Rehab," click here.]
It’s hard to believe all this could come in the package of a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from the United Kingdom who looks like someone you might find working behind the bar of a London dive. With pin-up girl tattoos littering her arms and a penchant for liquid eyeliner and beehive hairdos, Winehouse is part bad girl with a heart of gold, part romantic, part Motown back-up singer, a mash-up of styles and subtext spanning the past forty years of pop culture. On her, it makes sense.
Jazz may very well be in Winehouse’s bloodstream. Her grandmother dated British legend Ronnie Scott in the ’40s, and her uncles are professional jazz players. More significantly, her father claims she grew up on a steady diet of the artists like Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. As a teenager, she got hooked on hip hop, a force that works itself into her bolder rhythms and brashest lyrics. Inspired by groups like TLC and Salt ‘n’ Pepa, she and her best friend formed a rap group, Sweet ‘n’ Sour — Winehouse, of course, was sour.
Winehouse’s tart attitude is winning in the recording studio, but that attitude may overshadow her considerable talent — The Shangri-Las never sang about "F-k Me Pumps." In interviews, Winehouse rolls out a steady string of epithets I won’t repeat here. She’s appeared intoxicated on English chat shows and has allegedly been too drunk to finish live performances. She’s said to have assaulted a fan and even heckled saint-in-training Bono at Britain’s Q Awards. "Rehab," in fact, was inspired by her management company’s request that she seek help for her addictions. Winehouse, who says she’s been diagnosed as manic depressive but refuses to take medication for the disorder, not only rejected the offer but fired the management company.
The American public may latch on to the drama of Winehouse’s personal life if she ever hits big on these shores. She has, after all, written what could be the ultimate anthem for Hollywood celebrity in "Rehab." If you can, turn up the volume on your iPod high enough to drown out the chatter. The only addiction worth discussing concerning this promising Brit is how long you keep her album stuck in repeat mode.
— Guest Butler Liane Bonin is a senior editor at HitFix.com. Her work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety and on public radio. Her first novel, Celebrity Skin, an “inside Hollywood” look at what really happens on the way to the A-list, is now in paperback.
