So I'm a bit bothered that the first song on Back To Black features Amy Winehouse singing, "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no no no." There's also the problem that the song is so bright and cheery. Amy Winehouse died at 27 because of drugs and alcohol. Does this make anyone else uncomfortable?
Amy Winehouse has a great blues voice. At the risk of offending a million Adele fans, they kinda do the same sorta thing, but Winehouse has more theatrical flare out of the 1950s big bands whereas Adele is much more rooted in modern pop. Also Winehouse feels more upfront and forceful about the whole, "I'm a blues singer whether you like it or not!" Her voice is more powerful, and she uses it to do more of the obnoxious blues tropes than Adele does.
In any case, Back To Black has a great modern blues sound, but I also feel like it wants to be a throwback to the 1950s, and I feel it largely fails at that. I'm also not a huge fan of Amy Winehouse's voice. But as usual I like that the album is kept short at 35 minutes. I guess that makes Back to Black worthy of 3 stars. I mean, I don't want to listen to it again, but I could. It's a relative breeze.
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