I Told Ya I Was Trouble

Imagine, if you will, that Christina Aguilera, didn’t live her formative years at the Happiest Place on Earth, instead in the outskirts of London, that she wasn’t pressured to fit into the teen pop genre and instead of dressing like a pin up girl, like she has recently, she actually had tattoos of pin up girls on her arm, then she may have ended up much like Amy Winehouse. Certainly another comparison you will here is to that of Lily Allen as both British ladies blew up in their native land in recent years without anyone stateside knowing there name. Then there’s the whole biting black music. But where Allen mixes modern day hip-hop and reggae, Winehouse instead goes deeper making contemporary songs that are heavily influenced by jazz, soul, and R&B girl groups from the sixties.

Despite the old time feel to all the songs, her second album, Back to Black (her debut Frank hasn’t gotten released stateside) starts off with a song that definitely is a modern tale. Now I cannot confirm if Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan have been listening to Rehab on a loop for months, with lyrics like, “They tried to make me go to rehab but I said, no, no, no” and tales of making it to the check in counter only to leave, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had. But the reason why Winehouse is drinking isn’t to keep up the Paris Hilton lifestyle; she instead seeks the comfort of the bottle because she is in fear of losing here man a theme that comes up quite frequently on the rest of the album.

This is best represented on Me and Mr. Jones (not to be confused with Billy Paul’s Me and Mrs. Jones) where the love/hate relationship with her man goes on high where she takes him to task for making her miss the Slick Rick concert but says, “Side from Sammy you're my best black Jew.” And this girl likes her shout-out, aside from Slick Rick, and Mr. Davis Jr., she also give love to Ray (Charles), and Mr. Hathaway whom I assume she is referring to Donnie, not Anne’s dad. Marvin Gaye also gets some love as Tears Dry on Their Own is built around Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

The best of this set though is You Know I’m No Good, a great romp with a funky baseline and horns that come in and out at exactly the right times. And we American get an extra treat with a bonus version of the song featuring Ghostface Killer (granted you could have found the song on his More Fish album), and really, anyone down with the Wu is down with me. Now Lily Allen may have made the better album (see my review: Sun Is in the Sky, oh Why, oh Why Would I Want to be Anywhere Else), and has had the more buzz here, but this should be a battle to look forward for years to com.

Song to Download - You Know I’m No Good (featuring Ghostface Killer)

Back to Black gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.