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Back to Black

Flicking through the TV channels one evening about fifteen years ago I alighted on MTV or VH1 - at that time still playing music - halfway through a video in which a tattooed woman in a bathtub was singing (in such a way that I didn't doubt she meant it) 'I told you I was trouble - you know that I'm no good'. That was my introduction to Amy Winehouse's music. Her name I already knew courtesy of its numerous appearances in Heat magazine, a publication primarily focussed on celebrity gossip to which my wife then subscribed, in connection with similarly numerous episodes of publicly obnoxious behaviour.

I liked the songs of hers I heard, but not enough, at first, to tempt me to buy the record. Ten years later, sustained in part by her tragic posthumous fame, her songs were still often on the radio, and I found I enjoyed them all the more seasoned by the passing of time. It wasn't however, until last spring, when I heard the album played right through while at my sister's place that I resolved to acquire a copy. Not much later, I saw some amidst the display of vinyl at my local Sainsbury's supermarket, and brought one home with my three bagsful of groceries.

My favourites on the record will be uncontroversial choices: 'You Know I'm No Good', 'Back To Black', 'Love Is A Losing Game' & 'Tears Dry On Their Own'. I hardly need add that Winehouse's expressively soulful voice sounds fantastic; that the backing bands were on top form; and that producers Mark Ronson & Salaam Remi did a fine job twiddling the knobs,

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