Artist.......: Amy Winehouse
Album........: New Pop Festival
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Pop
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: 2012-08-17
Str.date.....: 2004-00-00
Quality......: 228kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://www.amywinehouse.com/
track title time
1. New Pop Festival 43:18
* October Song
* You Sent Me Flying
* In My Bed
* Take The Box
* Love Is Blind
* Brother
* Mr. Magic
* (There Is) No Greater Love
* Stronger Than Me
* Fuck Me Pumps
Runtime 43:18
Size 70.75
Release Notes:
Much can be said about the late Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.'s flagship
vocalists during the 2000s. The British press and tabloids seemed to focus on
her rowdy behavior, heavy consumption of alcohol, and tragic end, but fans and
critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humor, and distinctively
soulful and jazzy vocals. Her platinum-selling breakthrough album, Frank (2003),
elicited comparisons ranging from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Macy Gray
and Lauryn Hill. Interestingly enough, despite her strong accent and vernacular,
one can often hear aspects of each of those singers' vocal repertoire in
Winehouse's own voice. Nonetheless, her allure had always been her songwriting
-- almost always deeply personal but best known for its profanity and brutal
candor.
Born to a taxi-driving father and a pharmacist mother, Winehouse grew up in the
Southgate area of northern London. Her upbringing was surrounded by jazz. Many
of the uncles on her mother's side were professional jazz musicians, and even
her paternal grandmother was romantically involved with British jazz legend
Ronnie Scott at one time. While at home, she listened to and absorbed her
parents' selection of greats: Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank
Sinatra among others. However, in her teens, she was drawn to the rebellious
spirit of TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and other American R&B and hip-hop acts of the time.
At the age of 16, after she had been expelled from London's Sylvia Young Theatre
School, she caught her first break when pop singer Tyler James, a schoolmate and
close friend, passed on her demo tape to his A&R, who was searching for a jazz
vocalist. That opportunity led to her recording contract with Island Records. By
the end of 2003, when she was 20 years old, Island had released her debut album,
Frank. With contributions from hip-hop producer/keyboardist Salaam Remi,
Winehouse's amalgam of jazz, pop, soul, and hip-hop received rave reviews. The
album was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize as well as two Brit awards,
and its lead single, "Stronger Than Me," won an Ivor Novello Award for Best
Contemporary Song.
Following Winehouse's debut, the accolades and inquiring interviews appeared
concurrently in the press with her tempestuous public life. Several times she
showed up to her club or TV performances too drunk to sing an entire set. In
2006, her management company finally suggested that she enter rehab for alcohol
abuse, but instead, she dumped the company and transcribed the ordeal into the
U.K. Top Ten hit "Rehab," the lead single for her second, critically acclaimed
album, Back to Black. Containing evocative productions from Salaam Remi and
British DJ/multi-instrumentalist Mark Ronson, the album somewhat abandoned jazz,
delving into the sounds of '50s/'60s-era girl group harmonies, rock & roll, and
soul. The fanfare over the release was so great that it started to spill over
onto U.S. shores; several rappers and DJs made their own remixes of various
songs, not to mention covers by Prince and the Arctic Monkeys.
One month after Winehouse won Best Female Artist at the Brit Awards in February
2007, Universal released Back to Black in the U.S. The LP charted higher than
any other American debut by a British female recording artist before it, and it
remained in the Top Ten for several months, selling a million copies by the end
of that summer. Just as in the U.K., she became the talk of the town, landing on
the covers of Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. Not long afterward, though,
Winehouse canceled her North American tour. Early reports revealed that she was
entering rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, but her new management denied the
claims, stating it was due to severe exhaustion. Her erratic behavior kept her
and her new husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, in the tabloids constantly, on and off
stages on both sides of the Atlantic, but in late 2007, American fans were
finally given a chance to hear Winehouse's early work, with a slightly
abbreviated (two songs removed and one added) version of Frank.
Unfortunately, the next four years were filled with drama, disappointment, and
very little music. By 2009, her marriage had ended in divorce, she had
repeatedly been arrested on assault charges and/or public order offenses, her
struggles with substance abuse and mental health issues tragically played out in
the press. Public performances turned into incoherent disasters, the worst of
them posted to video-sharing sites for all to see. A track on the Quincy Jones
tribute Q: Soul Bossa Nostra appeared in 2010, while a duet with Tony Bennett
was announced in early 2011, but a planned follow-up to Back to Black would
never make it past the demo stage. Winehouse was found dead in her Camden,
London apartment on July 23, 2011. The coroner's report, delivered three months
later, revealed that her blood alcohol content had reached a potentially fatal
level.
Nearly two months after her death, Winehouse's first posthumous appearance was
released on Tony Bennett's Duets II, where she dueted with Bennett on "Body and
Soul." Near the end of 2011, her family's foundation announced the release of
Lioness: Hidden Treasures, a posthumous compilation featuring recordings from
throughout her career (although a few of the arrangements were recorded after
her death).