Amy’s refined new songwriting approach has been grafted onto some of the most astonishing, stunning material of her short career so far. Her fearlessness as a lyric writer has no peer. While other girls of her young vintage - she’s still only 22 - like to turn a comic motif out of their relationship histories or deal in generic pop emotions, she smarts at the idea of being anything less than brutally honest. “What’s the point of not being?” she quizzes, with a sanguine charm. Yet she knows she can be funny too. “You’ve got to get that in there. Life is funny and sad, sometimes both at the same time.”
Amy reunited with Frank producer Salaam Remi in Miami for a two week, whistle-stop recording tour and they found magic once again. Promptly she decamped to New York to work with man of the moment Mark Ronson, managing to book a spare moment between his work on the Lily Allen, Robbie Williams and Christina Aguilera albums. In her three weeks of studio time she found a new soul and direction, one that both channelled the girl groups of her fancy but placed them slap bang into the middle of modernity. “I’m not quite sure how the record turned out to sound so complete but I knew that when I decided to record it in a couple of weeks I wanted it to sound like it had been.” The songs are built around the classic three minute pop motif. Nothing is over-egged. “Back To Black” is a coherent piece, built for listening in one sitting.
Amy isn’t certain how she turned into one of those girls that isn’t afraid of the darker experiences in life and turning them into something witty and truthful, but she’s glad it turned out that way. “I always want to feel something. Because I know that I can write a song and deliver it to get it out of me if a situation turns bad. I understand myself so much better after I’ve written a song about something.” Music is not just her defence mechanism. It is her lifeline. In the two years since Frank cause such a ruckus by presenting this voluble and extraordinary human being centre stage, Amy thinks its only circumstances that have changed, not her. But you can see it in her increasingly creative body art, her slightly more aggressive eye make-up and the great swoop of black hair that cascades across her face and down her back. This time, Amy Winehouse has charted her progress from girlhood to womanhood. It suits her.
You’ll be pleased to know that she met a guy a few months ago - they share the same birthday, so it’s fate, see? He loves her and she loves him. She is untangling her mess, finding her true spirit and learning to break loose from the demons that have followed her. She’s doing it all with a smile on her face. “Back To Black”, with its stunning array of loosely strung, funk-inflected joints sees her finally getting to a good place with herself.