“Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse
2000s Week begins with the hit record from one of Britain’s most distinctive talents.
Programming note: Hello and Happy Holidays! Today kicks off the next themed collection of newsletter posts: it’s 2000s week. I'm spotlighting some of my favorite records released between 2000 and 2009. Like previous decade-themed newsletter posts, I've selected albums that cover multiple genres and deliberately avoided the well-worn titles that top all "best of" lists for this decade. In other words, no Kid A, Marshall Mathers LP, and so on.
Hope you enjoy it!
Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s 2000s music pick revisits the hit sophomore record from one of Britain’s most distinctive vocal talents.
Genre: Pop, Soul
Label: Island
Release Date: October 27, 2006
Vibe: 🥲
It’s difficult to underestimate how long and smothering a shadow Back to Black has cast over modern pop and soul music since its release. In a landscape filled with singers like Adele and Sam Smith, who artfully, almost giddily, wring singalong hits out of blunt honesty about heartbreak, Amy Winehouse’s multi-platinum sophomore album helped popularize, if not design, a template for success. Lest we forget, the LP’s biggest smash, “Rehab,” is about her refusing professional help for alcoholism, a disease that ultimately played a part in her joining the 27 Club. Her reason is not that she doesn’t think she drinks excessively (she acknowledges her habit, in fact), but rather because it’s the only way she can cope. “It's not just my pride/It's just till these tears have dried,” she sings. At that point in the song, Ronson’s immaculately arranged brass section swells to bring her into the chorus, one of the decade’s most recognizable. It’s a moment of real pain and struggle packaged as sonic euphoria, a trick he and Winehouse reuse over and over again to exacting effect. It’s so excellent in its construction that you barely stop to think whether or not you should be hearing these confessions in the first place.
“You Know I’m No Good,” the LP’s second track, is arguably the best work Winehouse ever did as a singer and songwriter. Its lyrics paint such an unflattering picture of her unwillingness to remain faithful to the man who wants to marry her. It takes a second to reconcile what she’s saying with the effortlessly smooth, sensitive vocal performance. There are notes of jazz greats like Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington (the latter a comparison Tony Bennett co-signed), as well as 60s mainstays, including the Shirelles and Ronettes. By the time you make it halfway through the record for the incredible one-two punch of “Love is a Losing Game” and “Tears Dry on Their Own,” you’re fully with her. By leading with empathy instead of indifference or unrelenting brattiness, she pulls you closer instead of pushing you away despite the turbulent ground she’s covering. Of course, it’s tragic that she left at such a young age. She’d have almost certainly attained Swiftian levels of fame had she not passed when she did. However, it’s also fair to ask whether she would’ve delivered a record like Back to Black had she lived life less recklessly.
“What ifs” aside, this album holds up as a momentous achievement.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈