Amy Winehouse - 'Tears Dry On Their Own'
Golly, it's kind of tough to know what words to use these days, when you're talking about Amy Winehouse. Certainly the media-profile-version of her is as some kind of talented super-freakshow - all hairy skin, odd physical twitches, lost teeth, the battle with the bottle, wearing the same vest for months on end...a kind of anorexident waiting to happen, if you'll forgive such a heartless pun.
On the other hand, there's her music, which is skilfully produced to recreate the golden days of '60s soul. The days where xylophones and finger-clicks were considered just as soulful as gutbucket howling or a thumping bass (note: I said JUST AS, not MORE). Put these two things together and you've got a kind of karaoke cross between Pete Doherty and Gladys Knight, only with much bigger hair.
And yet the reason anyone gives a cack about Amy in the first place is that she has the rare ability to dredge through the cesspit of her private life (or what we all imagine her private life is like, which isn't the same thing) with a tiny little goldfish net, catching little nuggets (no, not THOSE nuggets) of black love, and unflinchingly melting them down and fusing them together, using her blowtorch voice. A quick brush-up and polish later, and startling necklaces of pop gold emerges.
All of which is a very ponced-up way of saying that Amy Winehouse songs - and this one is a doozy - wouldn't BE Amy Winehouse songs if she didn't live the way she lives, or have her records produced in the way they are. Some of this is because a girl needs inspiration, no matter how dangerous, and some of it is because those old soul sounds are all about opening up your worst moments to public scrutiny (kinda gothy!) in a really uplifting way (oh).
Which does lead you to wonder what kind of records a trouble-free Amy Winehouse would make (something by Xenomania, perhaps?), even though there will be pink ravens in the Tower Of London before such a thing comes to pass.
Hope she's alright tho...
Download: Out now
CD Released: August 13th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
I love this song. It's sultry sexy and it's just oozing class.
pfft, whos using text talk now?! 'tho'.. lazy language has infected the adults, the worlds going crazy.. HELP!
[Ah but it's OK if you use abbreviations for effect, it's not textspeak in the true "u r mi gr8 m8" sense. In this case I said 'tho' cos it suits that kind of half-muttered afterthought at the end of the review. I wasn't even trying to be 'Down' with 'The Kids'! - Fraser]
ah ok, ill let you off this time, just dont make a habbit of it :P
I agree, this song is class...
but how is it sexy?
i once heard a local radio DJ describe 'another day in paradise' by brandy and ray j as a 'low down dirty r'n'b tune' - yeah cos the theme of people on the streets is really tune to bump and grind to...
I actually love this song... I wasn't a huge fan of 'Rehab', I'd heard it too many times without really listening to it and it just got irritating before I gave it a chance, I think. This is awesome though.
Fraser.. any guesses as to which old song it's reminding me of?
Kat.....IMO this song reminds me a little bit of Ain't No Mountain High Enough :)