Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (2006) - Revisited

  "We only said "goodbye" with words / I died a hundred times" wails the songstress on the album's title track. A raw and heartbreaking story, Back to Black depicts a woman struggling with her personal demons. Though it was promoted to be an album strictly about heartbreak, it turned out to be more self-reflective. Temptation, loneliness, addiction, depression & self-sabotage are all topics that were covered throughout the 10 track album. These topics, however, were not the usual criteria for the standard pop album. There weren't (and still aren't) songs topping the billboard charts that contain lyrics like "I'm gonna lose my baby / So I always keep a bottle near." Amy Winehouse didn't sugarcoat things, and Back to Black is a strong testimony to this.

    Amy Winehouse's storytelling chops are introduced to us with the first track Rehab. The song is a retelling of a situation that actually happened in her life. Those close to her were concerned about her drinking habits and set up an intervention trying to convince her to go to rehab instead of recording her sophomore album. She said that she would only agree to go if her dad thinks she should, but her father believed she was fine and sober, ultimately leading to him saying no. Through 60's pop melodies with frank observations, Winehouse speaks of feelings that are devastating through songs you can blast almost anywhere. From realizing that rejection from men are only part of your problems as told through Tears Dry On Their Own ("Why do I stress the man / When there's so many bigger things at hand?") to the singer taking a look at herself from another person's point of view (She's so vacant / Her soul is taken / He thinks "What she running from?") Back to Black digs deep into painful situations that most people would not want to acknowledge.

  In the 2015 Oscar winning documentary titled Amy, there is a recording of her discussing how music was her therapy for depression. The material she wrote about was authentic and directly personal to her. It was how she was able to dig deep for songs such as Love Is a Losing Game, where she paints a bleak picture of romance. It was written after her then boyfriend, (whom she later ended up marrying in 2007) Blake Fielder-Civil, dumped her to get back with his ex. This breakup also resulted in the sickeningly beautiful doo-wop influenced ballad Wake Up Alone. Throughout the song, she describes her daytime distractions to keep her from thinking about heartbreak, but ultimately fails as the night falls ("His face in my dreams seizes my guts / He floods me with dread"). 

  After reflecting on Back to Black as a whole, one will realize that there are few moments of optimism or solution. There are moments of clarity, like with the joyful sounding and reflective track Tears Dry On Their Own, but no true full on grasp of reality. While most people would be quick to label the lyrical content of this album as depressing, many fail to realize that all of the songs shine a light on her truly original and raw songwriting. It's a personal testimony to how she got through heartbreak without sugarcoating anything. Though most of the songs provide a dark view on heartbreak, there is a little glimmer of hope echoed throughout the closing track He Can Only Hold Her....("He tries to pacify her / But what's inside her never dies.").