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Back To Black | 
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| Artist: Amy Winehouse
Label: Universal Music Group
Category: Music
List Price: CDN$ 15.99
Buy New: CDN$ 9.75
You Save: CDN$ 6.24 (39%)
New (13) Used (3) from CDN$ 9.75
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 183
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 1714211
UPC: 602517142114
EAN: 0602517142114
ASIN: B000KG5THI
Release Date: December 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: We sell brand new shrink-wrapped items only. Guaranteed or your money back.
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| Tracks:
| • | Rehab | | • | You Know I'm No Good | | • | Me & Mr. Jones | | • | Just Friends | | • | Back to Black | | • | Love Is a Losing Game | | • | Tears Dry on Their Own | | • | Wake Up Alone | | • | Some Unholy War | | • | He Can Only Hold Her |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Almost there June 25, 2007
Wayne Deadder (Oakville, Ontario Canada)
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
Yes, the old-school sound is infectious. I was pleased to learn that the production was credited to two hip-hop DJs. It gives me faith that all is not lost in music. With Mowtown/Phil Spector aura coming to the fore, it brings a refreshing sound to the pop genre, dispite the fact that it is not a new idea. It seems like more of a production homage. If you like the sound of this record, credit Winehouse's producers. They crafted the sound.
Winehouse's songwriting is frank, which is always a winner. However, when breaking down the chord choices, I found that Winehouse still has a way to go. Her chord progressions sound arbitrary and without grounding. However, her lyrics/production supercede these things in a big way.
If you enjoy this album, may I suggest any Phil Spector produced gems, Mowtown or Stax recordings. THATS the real deal.
Hello Amy Winehouse nice to meet you June 23, 2007
Jenny J.J.I. (That Lives in Northern Nevada)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Never knew who she was till I watch her "You know I'm No Good" video at VH-1. Amy Winehouse's style is just so raw. The lyrics are simple but mean so much. A lot people put themselves into her place and vent with her lyrics which explains why certain people take into her. I like the fact that she sings of the dark side of love which is ever so common in today's world.
The title track deftly steals its introduction from Jimmy Mack before spiraling off into a much darker place while "You Know I'm No Good" has a classy Philadelphia soul feel and some wonderful horn work. Ronson's influence is unmistakable - it's a long time since a producer and artiste felt this right together.Yet this is still Winehouse's album all over. Her voice is still incredible - every so often, you get a shiver down the spine when you realize that she's only 23 with the voice of a woman two or three times her age. Apparently written while she was nursing a broken heart, the spectra of failed relationships looms large, especially during the gently skanking "Just Friends" or the aching "Love Is A Losing Game." The old school soul references keep up throughout the album and she swears like a trouper too. "Me And Mr. Jones" could almost be an old soul hit from the late '50s until you hear Winehouse purring the quite magnificent opening line of "what kind of f$$kery is this? You made me miss the Slick Rick gig". The exuberant "Tears Dry Up On Their Own" is another highlight, marrying a glorious rush of a chorus with Winehouse's husky vocals and an another smooth production job from co-producer Salaam Remi. I love "Rehab" because it's not like other songs that have to do with tragedy with drugs and stuff, it's a rehab song! The old school touch is priceless in this track! She sings from her soul not her mind, and that's what it's all about.
Amy's album is really nice. She doesn't remind me of anyone but herself. She strives to have her own sound, and I think she's established that. Base on some other reviews there's no reason to compare skin colors, the color of your skin doesn't affect how or what you sing. She's just an outside thinker and it shows in her music. After listening to this album a couple of times now makes me want to purchase her debut album "Frank" even more.
 brilliant, blistering hot summer soundtrack June 5, 2007
saskia noordzij (montreal)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
i cannot stop playing this brilliant cd. everyone i play it for runs out to buy it, then they, too, cannot stop playing this brilliant cd.
that voice, that voice...
the only disappointing moment i've had with "back to black" was when i opened the liner note booklet and realised that she really *isn't* a 73 year-old 200 pound black woman who was a huge star for 6 months in 1959, then wrongfully forgotten only to be resuscitated in 2007 to huge acclaim. despite the fact that she is only a 23 year-old anoxeric-looking middle class white girlie, amy reaches into your guts, twists them around, makes you laugh, make you dance, haunts you and leaves you wanting more.
why are there only 10 songs on this dazzling cd? why is frank (her previous release) nowhere as good as this? (mark ronson, the producer, seems to be a crucial part of the equation...check out her brilliant cover of "Valerie" on his new disc.)
more! more! more!
BUY this.
seriously.
Excruciatingly honest , sexy and smouldering. April 24, 2007
peterhoof (London, UK)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
As for her voice: where does it come from, this extraordinary sound?
The music poures out of her, a stream of weathered, seasoned phrases, seemingly without effort, and mercifully without any of the ululating and over-emoting that blights so many performances in the soul-jazz field in which Winehouse operates.
For her, what matters is the quality of the notes, not the quantity.
Amy Winehouse is, of course, almost as famous for her behaviour as for her music; tabloid newspapers in recent months have been peppered with the striking visage of this north London Jewish girl, accompanying lurid reports of her latest night on the razz. But here, on this fantastic set, she'd done so in moderation, because she seemed focused and together.
"Back to Black", is a more soulful and stripped-down collection than her jazzier debut, "Frank". The influence of girl groups from the 1950s and early '60s is plain: plinky keyboards, parpy brass, trebly guitar.
Some excellent background vocals provide weight and depth, while she and her band do a brilliant job of recreating the big soulful sound conjured up in the studio by producer Mark Ronson.
In songs such as "Me & Mr Jones", "Back to Black", "Love is a Losing Game" and "Rehab", we may hear the sound of Phil Spector, of Muscle Shoals, of the Shirelles and the Supremes.
But this is no mere retro soul show: these are not pastiches, but real emotional journeys from a woman with real emotional experiences.
She is a standout talent with a nice line in bitchy put-downs and a wondrous voice reminiscent of Dinah Washington.
Even so, her second album has surpassed all expectations.
This is the best British soul album in absolutely ages, a complete package of lovingly recreated Motown/60s girl group sounds, caustic, often excruciatingly honest lyrics, great finger popping tunes and a voice that does sexy and smouldering and dismissive contempt with equal alacrity.
Jazz meets soul over a bottle of wine. March 20, 2007
Christi Serrao (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Addiction to alcohol, marijuana, sex - just about anything you can get hooked on, Amy has been there, written a song about it, and is now looking for something else to feed her dependency.
Well, it makes for an interesting record.
As a songwriter Amy has grown and stretched her self, vocally she is in a new league breaking loose with Aretha-style vocal stylings on "Just Friends" or going gospel on the opening single "Rehab".
"Love Is A Losing Game" is pure classic modern songwriting: brief, to the point and drenched in emotion. Other highlights include the Nas inspired "Me and Mr Jones", the beautiful "Wake Up Alone" and "I'm No Good" - the personal epiphany that you can behave just as badly as all those guys that have messed you around and stamped all over you..
After a strident opening with (refusing to go to) "Rehab", she works through a patchwork of vices and denials and just about every genre going in a self-dramatising sweep of trauma and Tanqueray.
Swept along in the tide of her addictions, over waves of Aretha Franklin influences, her cigarette-tinged voice croons, twists and occasionally screeches to a complement of guitars, trumpets, even the odd flugelhorn.
You name it, she's not afraid to use it.
Experimental and confident, she flirts variously with R&B, soul and hip hop before returning to her home key: JAZZ.
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