I know it may not be “cool” to be an Amy Winehouse fan, but when I saw the double-LP Lioness: Hidden Treasures, I knew I needed this album. Honestly, I’d never even listened to Winehouse before her tragic death. Sure, I’d seen the scandalous TMZ photos and heard the celebre-gossip, but I just never took the time to hear what the hype was all about. After her much-publicized demise, I added a station to my Pandora channel, just for kicks. And I was blown away.
First of all, I cannot resist a sexy, slurry, and soulful female voice. Her lyrics remind me of, well…me. And maybe that’s cliché or naïve, but when you find something that opens your ears, I say let it in!
This album is comprised of unreleased songs, including my favorite, “Best Friends, Right?” as well as killer covers of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” and “The Girl From Ipanema.”
Rolling Stone sums it up for me: “Winehouse’s singing is both raggedy and dramatic, winking and insouciant, full of high drama and a breezy sense of play—sometimes all those things at the same time.”
This article was published in The Local Voice #155 (May 3-19, 2012)…Click here to download the PDF of issue #155.
