British Invasion

There seems to be a new British Invasion being lead by a trio of female singers. The buzz around Lily Allen, Joss Stone and Amy Winehouse is reaching new heights. Not so surprising when the top American female pop singers are otherwise occupied. Britney Spears in rehab, Christina Aguilera in a time wrap, Beyoncé more occupied with 'acting' and shitty fashion and Lauryn Hill still MIA.
The queen of this British hype has been Amy Winehouse. Amy has received rave reviews from almost every music blog, the Washington Post and now she's sitting pretty with the number one CD on Amazon.
I was lucky enough to see Amy live in concert last month and was blown away by her stage presence. I finally got a chance to listen to the album and that same presence seems to be missing. I understand why everyone wants to love this album, Amy writes very honest and personal music. The problem is that on some tracks the production over powers Amy's very powerful voice. The balance of strong horns and strong vocals never really comes together on the album. When the balance does comes together it comes together beautiful as on tracks 'Love is a losing game' and 'He can only hold her'. Both tracks are something out a Motown classic album and Amy's vocals carry the music and not the other way around. Is the album worth the hype, probably not but until something better comes along let's bask in an female artist who writes, performs and is honest with her music.
3 0ut of 5 stars