Let’s be honest, this song is going to be a hit. It wouldn’t matter if the remainder of this piece consisted of nothing more than a haphazard mishmash of vowels and consonants, chances are the large proportion of readers will already have made up their minds to track down ‘Our Day Will Come’ regardless.
Even before her untimely – but hardly unexpected – demise, Amy Winehouse was a titanic cultural force. Now she’s joined Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison at The Great After Party in the Sky, we can only expect her legend to increase. In these circumstances, it’s all too easy for the image of the tragic rock star to eclipse the actual music that made them famous. Thankfully, this first posthumous Winehouse release provides a welcome reminder of precisely why everyone fell in love with her before her tabloid image took centre stage.
Put simply, the girl could sing. There is undeniable soul in her every syllable, something that the wave of retro-copyists who sprung up in her wake have always struggled to emulate. ‘Our Day Will Come’ is a reggae-inflected take on the 1960’s doo-wop tune, originally recorded with producer Salaam Remi when Winehouse was just 18 years old.
The track is our first glimpse of ‘Lioness: Hidden Treasures’, an album that gathers a range of previously unheard songs which span Winehouse’s all too short career. Released in December, the record also features versions of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’, ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and ‘Body and Soul’, the duet with Tony Bennett that was Winehouse’s last studio recording.
While Amy Winehouse seems to be a permanent fixture in the press, it’s refreshing to hear that the troubled singer is finally releasing some new music. There’s no sign of a follow up to 2006’s ‘Back To Black’ just yet, but the singer has reunited with producer Mark Ronson and the legendary Quincy Jones on a cover of the Lesley Gore classic, ‘It’s My Party’ – originally produced by Jones back in 1963. The collaboration is to be included on the forthcoming album ‘Q: Soul Bossa Nostra’, which revisits old Quincy Jones classics with the help of such stars as Snoop Dogg, Usher and Mary J. Blige.
In terms of measuring this as a mark of Winehouse’s comeback, it’s fair to say that she isn’t stretching too far from the formula of ‘Back To Black’. Ronson’s retro tinged production once again perfectly complements her unmistakable vocal delivery. While there are a couple of dodgy moments (namely when she unleashes her full North London accent loose in a spoken word section) the singer still possesses a voice that can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
When Amy Winehouse released her debut album, ‘Frank’, she failed to make too much of a splash and was widely compared to successful jazz influenced singers of the time such as Norah Jones and Katie Melua. While the risqué lyrical content of some tracks helped separate her from the pack, no one was quite prepared for the jump she would make with her follow up. ‘Back To Black’ was the perfect answer to any fears of the dreaded second album syndrome. ‘Rehab’ – the first single and album opener – perfectly sets the tone for one of the most brutally honest albums of the decade. While the singer’s private life has been well documented, to a level that has threatened to overshadow the singer’s talent, Amy Winehouse isn’t one to shy away from the harsh realities of life and she displays this perfectly through her music. However ‘Back To Black’ is by no means a morose, reflective record. Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi’s production gives the album a distinctive Motown feel that juxtaposes perfectly with Winehouse’s lyrics. Tracks such as ‘You Know That I’m No Good’, ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ and title track ‘Back To Black’ are arguably some of the finest pop songs produced in the 00’s. Standing up as one the defining albums of the decade, ‘Back To Black’ established Amy Winehouse as one of nations most talked about stars. It’s the sound of an artist truly hitting their stride, but hopefully not their peak. While many know Winehouse as a tabloid fixture, let’s hope ‘Back To Black’ isn’t the zenith of the singer’s career.
