A Little Review on Amy Winehouse's "Frank"

Amy Winehouse. If you haven't had a listen, because you are up under the spell of the media who has dubbed her "Amy Wino", maybe you should put down those tabloids and open up your ears.

Her first album is nothing compared to her second, Black to Black. That is the darker version, essentially to her first. Yes, soulful still, but in a (lack for a better term) black way. And, yes, it’s still very beautiful, and amazing. Winning so many Grammy's that Kanye West was jealous to the point of bashing our girl Amy. Back to Black had tons of people loving (and haters hating) the chant of "NO NO NO" on the album’s first single, "Rehab". It suddenly became the song everyone was talking about.

But this girl with lungs like Billie Holliday of the 1940's had come out of nowhere in America. (She was known in her mother country of England before the success of BTB and before her personal problems)

Most of us had not a clue, that she had an album before Back to Black. Before "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good" Before TV and magazines started prying into the young woman's life. Standing outside her house 24/7 with a camera in hand...

This album was called "Frank" titled after the man in the song “Take the Box".

And today, I listened all the way through it. And was simply speechless after the outro of "Amy Amy Amy" (an eleven minute song consisted of three parts) came to a close.

On here, we have songs of love, hate, men, problems, relationships and parties, fakes, boring work in an office that gets put off because a sexy man, men that are acting like "lady-boys" and a guitar called "Cherry".

Not your type of music, you might think at first. But when the girl sings out the first words of "What's it about men" or the catchy chorus of "In my Bed" reaches your ears that have probably been deprived of good music, (as I think most ears have been today), you will change your mind.

It’s soulful; you can hear Amy pouring her heart into these songs. The beats of each song differs from something you can dance to in a night club in your sexiest pumps (pun intended) or in candlelight with the one that you love. The lyrics are all true to life, nothing that is overdone, or unreal, the feelings and situations that the British singer sings, could happen to you, or a friend. You could feel that way too. In love, out of love, laughing at the fakes, or laughing at your own silly mistakes. Her voice is playful at times, and you can hear her smiling about what she is singing. Its emotional, but in a good way.

Its R&B, but not in the way you think of today, it's classy sounding, but with Amy adding a bit of cussing to add color and add herself to this album.

It's fun and its deep, and it’s now one of my all time favorite albums.

If you have thought that Amy was nothing but a talentless, messed up girl who does to much crack, then "Frank" would probably change your mind.
I know it would. Don't think this as biased, because I knew nothing about Amy when I first heard "Rehab" on the radio. I let my mind hear the music, and it liked it. And that is how we should all go into listening to music:

Not caring what goes on in musicians' lives, but instead think about the life they put in their music.

Watch: Fuck Me Pumps
Hear: the whole album, if you can. If not, In my Bed, What's it about Men, I Heard Love is Blind, and (There is) No Greater Love