Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Future of Soul?


The publicists have been doing their job well creating a lot of buzz around British soulstress Amy Winehouse's second release 2006's Back To Black. Unfortunately, Ms. Winehouse's offstage (and occasionally onstage) partying takes the spotlight rather than the fact that this little girl can really belt out a tune. She actually seems to embrace her party girl image with tracks like Rehab, Addicted and Me And Mr Jones. She's been compared to past artists as varied as Billie Holiday to The Ronnettes to Lauren Hill. Amy mixes sounds from classic 60's R&B with themes that are very much from this century. Is this the future of soul? Back To Black has just been made available in the States and it's definately worth a listen. Here are the first two tracks.

Amy Winehouse: Rehab

Early last year, Amy's management suggested she go to rehab. In response, she dumped her management and wrote this tune which ended up in the UK top ten. She showed them. Besides her "Daddy thinks she's fine." Attagirl.

Amy Winehouse: You Know I'm No Good

This radio friendly track is an album standout. I love any song that references the great Roger Moore.

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