Released: 2006
“When all hope is gone/Sad songs say so much”
Do we really over-eulogise about records which come in close proximity to the departure of the artist who made them? Is Back to Black really a stone cold classic? Well, yes to both questions. Amy Winehouse’s second and final album is a raucous spit in the face of life, one which came from the bottom of the singer’s heart and glass.
Even though you might want to put it up on a grief predestal, it’s certainly no In Utero or Pink Moon, instead it’s brash to the point of gaudy, heartstring tugging to the verge of cheese. It has no filter and no chill, neither being qualities it’s complicated centrepiece valued in what there was of her real life.
There’s always a kind of novelty anti-therapist’s snark to Rehab, but Winehouse nailed hers and Back to Black‘s true colours to the mast of You Know I’m No Good. The words came scrawled from a chaotic diary’s pages – has there ever been a better line written than “You sniffed me out like I was Tanqueray” – but to so effortlessly capture the character’s (!) hapless, wanton self destruction was a stroke of unteachable genius that made it the best cheating song since Careless Whisper. Do we like it because it’s sad? No, we like it because it’s sad – and good.
The Voice Of Unreason 