Amy Winehouse

I’m having problems figuring out my opinion on Amy Winehouse. On the one hand she is making pretty original music for 2007 and it is refreshing to hear a classical R&B delivery in an age of over-emotive, American Idol inspired pseudo-soul. There is no doubt she can sing. But there is something overly practiced and artificial in her music. I can almost see her rehearsing in front of her mirror ten years ago saying, “I’m going to be a great singer someday”. The well reported rumors of her supposed heavy drinking seem to have the feel of a publicist and marketers touch, carefully forming her back story. And it is probably unfair to criticize her for this video but she makes a whole lot of contrived faces and hand gestures that, to my eye, seem far from natural expressions. I’d also love to jump into the video and punch the annoying saxophone player in the nose. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get the tune from “Rehab” out of my head for a couple of weeks now and am tempted to buy it on ITunes and overplay it to death in order to purge myself of this bothersome song. Ultimately she seems like a pretty poor Shirley Bassey rip off which is a very good choice for an influence but far too derivative to my liking. This brings up a question I've always wondered that if you are really annoyed by a song a part of you actually likes it. For years I thought I hated the song "Here's Where the Story Ends" by the Sundays when one day it dawned on me that I really liked it a lot but this is a topic for another post. So if you want my recommendation for annoying but likeable female British singers I say Lily Allen. Mindless pop? Indeed. Infectious and likeable? Without a doubt.