Back to Black is a modern classic. We know this because HMV features it in the 3 for £55 sale. No good comes from shopping at retailers flogging pools of artists, the independent café which doubles as a record store across the road is your salvation. In there are the excellent works, the buried treasures and these clear classics. It feels like a dirty word to use for an album which released this century. But classic is correct. Back to Black is a revolutionary pop album because, among everything, it has heart. Amy Winehouse conveys the localised struggle and swing of a genre out of favour with everyday listeners. With the use of strong vocal work, Winehouse electrifies and modernises the jazz-pop of old. An essential listen by any means, but a striking half-hour which builds on her debut, Frank.
Guilt and grief storm through this one – a desire to bottle up your emotions and lean into those home-grown comforts music can offer dominates opener Rehab. Backed by intense brass and some fluttering yet integral piano work, Winehouse reacts to her life from track to track. Powerful explorations of the fallout of relationships and hardships but with a hopeful twang to it all. You Know I’m No Good builds on self-destruction. Active choices to ruin the slim positives in a life already peppered with hardship, and once more backed by some cool brass collectives. But it also marks a time of reflection for a listener, a grief thief in the making who can reflect on their shortcomings. Back to Black has the thump of personality lacking from mid-2000s pop.
Winehouse provided another level of intimacy and striking fury which is now absent from the charts. Its title track, Back to Black, is a perfect and damnable experience where Winehouse relies on the bubbling wall of sound beneath her. Steadied by this it becomes another track of uplifting perceptions in a time of horror and hardship. Those harsh realities come through on the memorable percussion and taps throughout Tears Dry On Their Own. Through so much of the work provided by Winehouse is a shock of where she is, a visceral conviction to storm through and champion yourself. The truth was further from this but the appeal of these songs comes not just from their talent but from their comfort – the arguments and rage we wish we could feel without the apparent problems.
Latter tracks like Some Holy War liken the throes of emotional strife to those fundamentalist battles. There is a change of pace in how we connect with other people. A fear is contained within Back to Black, kept down by this continued hopefulness Winehouse so grandly collects. Closing track Addicted feels like a dark shot filled with lush instrumentals. Back to Black serves as one of the finest achievements for a UK artist, who weathered an incredible storm and backlash following this release. Back to Black stands tall and will continue as a defiant piece. A collection of songs which slap the rage out of a person, the biting good and soulful honesty presented through this is a monumental experience – one which remains on every listen.
