Back to Black by Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album turns 15 years old this week. The body of work is a testament to her impeccable skill as a songwriter as well as vocalist. It can be very well considered the pinnacle of her career. The album was originally released on October 27th, 2006, and would go on to receive vast amounts of critical acclaim. The album became the best-selling album in 2007 in the UK. It would rank top 7 on the Billboard 200 becoming “the highest debut entry for an album by a British female solo artist at the time.”
The Guardian calls the album a “21st-century soul classic.” Time Magazine, The New York Times, and Billboard ranked Back to Black amongst the top ten best albums of 2006 and 2007. Rolling Stones ranks it twentieth of the top one hundred best albums of the 2000s. Winehouse in 2007 would go on to play Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, and Coachella. Winehouse would go on to perform with The Rolling Stones on the Isle of Wight Festival stage and with Prince in London to perform her song Love is a Losing Game in 2007.
What made Winehouse’s Back to Black so distinguished and superb to receive such accolades?
The theme of Winehouse’s album is the heartbreak from her breakup with Blake Fielder, with whom she had an on and off relationship since 2005. Amy first started to work on the album with her former producer, Salaam Remi. Winehouse would go to Miami to work with Remi to write and produce songs. Winehouse’s and Remi’s Just Friends and Addicted were recorded prior to the end of her first albums record sessions in 2003. In Miami Tears Dry on The Own and Just Friends were created in Salaam’s living room. Salaam also produced Some Unholy War. Winehouse would go on to work with Mark Ronson where she would go on to record the rest of the album songs. According to Ronson, Rehab arose as a song idea through a conversation. Ronson recalls the conversation: “There was this time when I was like drinking a lot, and my family and my manager, these people came over to my house. Then they tried to make me go to rehab, and I was like no, no, no.” He responded: "There's something catchy about what you just said. You want to just go back to the studio and like maybe try to turn that into a song?" Winehouse and Ronson continued the writing and production process where she would write the song Back to Black. Ronson describes: “That first day she wrote ‘Back to Black,’ all the lyrics and the melody in two or three hours.” The impeccable thing about the production of Back to Black is how we can see Amy’s capacity as a songwriter and singer. Amy had a vision, she used her heartbreak as a creative catharsis, while also demonstrating her ability to establish an original sound.
Back to Black is an album with lyrics that capture rawness, vulnerability, and heartbreak. The lyrics all throughout are dark, witty, audacious, and poetic. We can see this dark poetic lyricism within Wake Up Alone, the eighth track. Winehouse sings: "This face in my dreams seizes my guts/ He floods me with dread/ Soaked in soul/ He swims in my eyes by the bed/ Pour myself over him/ Moon spilling in/ And I wake up alone." Winehouse’s ability to create clever and unorthodox symbolism within her lyrics also is a leading reason why her lyrics stand out. In Back to Black Amy sings “And life is like a pipe and I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside”
Another reason this album stands out is the sound. The album itself has large jazz, 60’s, and soul influence. Amy and the instrumentals both emulate these sounds to give the record a nostalgic and vintage sound. Amy demonstrates a rich vocal ability and range as a jazzy and soulful singer. This not only shows how special Winehouse is as a vocalist and songstress but also as a musician. Winehouse shows her skills as a well-rounded musician who has the ability to create a cohesive sound and masterpiece quite like no other.
