It's interesting to me how opinions of Amy Winehouse look like the current Democratic nomination, split right down the middle. Listeners either love her or hate her.
I'm leaning toward the latter - "Rehab" is a pretty catchy tune, but beyond that I don't see what the big deal about her is beyond her drug-fueled persona. Is she planning on making a career out of singing about her addictions?
Whenever I read a review of Winehouse's music the words "bluesy" and "jazzy" always come up. Blues is a relatively simple musical form that been used to tell about hellhounds on my tail and to sell Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Winehouse does seem to have some of the affectations down, mostly soul-baring about how much she likes drinking and drugs. But American blues is about so much more - lost love, betrayal, poverty, bigotry, and struggling. It's so much more powerful than what Winehouse is doing, I feel it's almost an insult to the form to put her pop music in the same context.
This woman has a top selling album, a fawning media showering her with awards, and a boyfriend who loves her. If I may borrow a question George Carlin once asked, what the f*** does she have to be blue about?
