When your biggest song is a piece made bigger when covered by another artist, why not turn your attention to their back catalogue? It is an exercise in restraint for The Zutons, who had surprisingly not raided Amy Winehouse’s work before now. Their Valerie rendition may settle in as a jumped-up pop track but it was defined by the punchy Mark Ronson production which featured on her album of the same name. Writing is as much about conviction as it is about the story, and Winehouse appears to have embodied this tale better than the band behind it. What was a solid song has led to this, Back to Black. A cover of the Winehouse classic, intended in some strange way as a nod, a scratch of the back delivered almost two decades too late. Apples and oranges when it comes to The Zutons and Winehouse, but here we are.
Dress it up however you want, “honouring” Winehouse with a cover of one of her finest works, a heartbreaker but with a stoic nerve rushing through its jazz-like instrumentals, is never going to work. A Live Lounge is to blame for this one because nothing says warmth and positivity like a general public who feels their nostalgia flicker. Such is the case for Back to Black, a song that can sound appropriate in the hands and mouth of any singer. They change more than enough with the instrumentals to make it their own, though what they do manage is to dumb the song down beyond compare. A percussion style, a tapping which does not suit the expected power and sexualised notion heard in the lyrical performance is the real issue. Shimmering attempts with a guitar wading in, throwing its weight around as a stagnant vocal performance presents itself, undoes the very core of Back to Black.
Problems arise immediately for Back to Black here, not least because at its best all The Zutons are doing is providing a vague replication of what Winehouse offered. When they dare to drift into an original sound, all they can do is provide an indie-rock noise. Where Winehouse made Valerie her own, the transition back for Back to Black is riddled with trouble because the genre it is pulled from is infinitely more interesting, and harder to master too. Back to Black could work as an indie rock cover, of course it could, but the primitive nature of the genre and those who fly the flag highest of all, are part of the problem in a slice of music that is nowhere close to recovering from this style. The Zuton’s latest album release is as much to blame as this cover.
Everyone from Miley Cyrus to Paloma Faith has tried to cover Back to Black, with varying degrees of success. Something about covering it as a throwaway, like it is here for The Zutons despite their rigid claims of tribute movement, is uncomfortable. They are inevitable pairings of anyone who comes close to any sort of cover, but there is making a song your own as Winehouse did with Valerie, and following along like a panting dog as The Zutons do for Back to Black. A borderline competent cover which begs the question as to why you would listen to it over the original, beyond a minor fascination with how a band with one hit behind them can tackle the artist who gave their best song a bigger break. Indifferent instrumentals, a sturdy but uneventful vocal performance, and it all feels by the books for The Zutons here. Just try and ignore the vapid saxophone solo.
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