Released: 27 October, 2006
Label: Island
Genre: Soul, R&B
Producer: Mark Ronson, Salaam Remi
Back to Black was one of the first CD’s Andrew ever bought me, and it’s been on high rotation at our place ever since, so this was a familiar one. A record that was so original at the time, Winehouse inspired a soul-sister renaissance which is still being felt, 7 years after this record’s release, and a couple of years following her too-soon death. Stylistically it’s 50’s and 60’s but lyrically this is oh-so modern: these are noughties estate problems with drink and drugs, mixed with the timeless, ever-present heartache and heartbreak. Winehouse’s passing is so much sadder with this album delivering so much. Imagine what else she could have done.
Top tracks: “Rehab”is surely everyone’s favourite, tragic, though it seems like it was never going to be any other way.. “Tears Dry On Their Own” is the most upbeat and it’s a killer tune with some fantastic piano. But the album’s title track is the best – a thumping, grand, fuck-it surrender.
thehifielective 