Amy Winehouse : Frank
Track Listing :1. Intro
2. Stronger Than Me
3. You Sent Me Flying
4. Know You Now
5. Fuck Me Pumps
6. I Heard Love Is Blind
7. Moody's Mood For Love
8. (There Is) No Greater Love
9. In My Bed
10. Take This Box
11. October Song
12. What Is It About Men
13. Help Yourself
14. Amy Amy Amy
15. Outro
Earlier in the year, when the “No, no, no” refrain in Amy Winehouse’s defining single, “Rehab,” felt a lot more lighthearted, few people would have predicted that her next American release would be a retread. Then came a parade of news reports, tabloid and otherwise, that messed with the angle of her ascent. (Inverted it, even.) It’s no wonder her label seems keen to remind us of the genuine talent behind that beehive and mascara. “Frank” was hailed as a star-making debut when it was issued in Britain four years ago. Heard today, its glossy admixture of breezy funk, dub and jazz-inflected soul makes a somewhat less dazzling impression.
Ms. Winehouse already has her pliable and alluringly dark-hued alto, but her style isn’t fully evolved. She emulates Erykah Badu, confessing the influence in a passing line; Sarah Vaughan gets both a name check and some outright imitation. A couple of reconfigured jazz standards, including a reggae-tinged “Moody’s Mood for Love,” come across like well-intentioned misfires.
But Ms. Winehouse is grippingly effective, even at this stage of the game, when she pushes an air of toughened candor. “Frank” includes her bold admonition to a presumptuous ex-lover (“In My Bed”); an even bolder confession of infidelity, delivered with a shrug (“I Heard Love Is Blind”); and a few other depictions of troubled affairs. Her producer — Salaam Remi, a hip-hop veteran who later joined Mark Ronson in producing “Back to Black,” Ms. Winehouse’s breakthrough follow-up — clearly understands that tension suits her best.
Of course even Mr. Remi, revisiting “Frank,” might pause at these lyrics from “October Song,” the tune with the Sarah Vaughan allusion:
With dread I woke in my bed
To shooting pains up in my head
Lovebird, my beautiful bird
Spoke until one day she couldn’t be heard
She just stopped singing
She probably had no such intention, but the image is all too easy to link to her recent travails. So if the American release of “Frank” reconfirms her generous gifts as a singer, it also reveals what’s at stake as things slip out of her control. NATE CHINEN
Source : The New York Times
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