Amy Winehouse Back To Black Direct

Released as her second and final studio album, it transformed Winehouse into a global superstar and won five Grammy Awards.

Production detail: Mark Ronson recorded most of the album’s live band at Daptone Records’ house studio in Brooklyn – same room as Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Amy Winehouse Back To Black

Final Verdict: A Perfect 10

Critics have debated the ethics of loving Back to Black. Is it exploitation to cherish music born from such obvious suffering? Or is it reverence to recognize that Winehouse turned her pain into a gift for the world? Released as her second and final studio album,

The Sound: When the Shangri-Las Met a Boom-Bap Heart

From the first whack of the snare on “Rehab,” Back to Black announces itself as an album of collisions. Ronson’s production loves negative space – every horn stab, string swell, and backing vocal lands like a perfectly timed punch. On “Tears Dry on Their Own,” Winehouse sings over a chopped sample of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – but instead of uplift, she turns it into a bitter, Motown-paced jog away from a lover who “left no time to regret.” Is it exploitation to cherish music born from