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• Friday, December 14, 2007 11:41 AM

  Are Pretentious Poseurs Terrified of Winehouse Because She's The Real Deal?

  Why don't you all just admit that you like her because she sounds different than what is on the radio now, and you like to be different?

  Um, because that's not why I love Amy's music. There's lots of crap out there that sounds "different" from what's on the radio now, but it's equally unlistenable, uninvolving or uninspired. Winehouse sings like a cross between Billie Holiday, Shirley Bassey, Ronnie Spector and Dusty Springfield. Can't get much better than that. She writes like a foul-mouthed Carole King in her Brill Building heyday. Can't get any better than that either in pop. With her producer and band she's revisiting and revising the sound and stylings of the greatest era in pop and soul - roughly the late '50s thru the early '70s - putting just enough of a twist on things to make the moments surprising and delightful and new (it doesn't hurt that her songwriting is rock solid to begin with).

  I think she's the exact opposite of contrived (which you asserted), as she's doing exactly what she obviously loves, working with a pop vocabulary the industry abandoned decades ago. Foolishly, as her recent commercial success proves - turns out people like listening to actual music, with actual lyrics and an actual tune and clever, musical production after all. Whoda thunk it?

  I don't think she's "visionary" - she's not Bjork - but from an emotional and entertainment standpoint she makes more of a connection with her listeners than anything I've experienced in a decade. I think her personal problems are sad, but hardly unique. Many great talents have been thru as bad or worse - it seems to come with the territory. The ability of an artist like Winehouse or Holiday or Springfield to see further into the music than the rest of us also seems to allow them to see further into themselves (and others). They don't seem to much care for what they find there, and drug use is unfortunately one of the most common results.

  I'm not sure why Winehouse should be vilified for it, anymore than Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix. Drug abuse isn't a moral failing, it's a mental health issue. I do find it interesting that Winehouse is coming under attack from folks who apparently aren't Reaganite Puritans for her drug use. I suspect these folks are just pissed off that Winehouse is getting all the attention their tedious pet acts aren't, and are using whatever bricks are at their disposal to attack her. They can't really attack the songs, because the melodies are flawless and the lyrics are strong. They can't attack her singing, because she can sing her ass off (at least, when she's not completely wasted). So they go after her image (always a convenient way to target women performers) and her drug problem.

  You clowns are more pathetic than a half-naked Winehouse stumbling thru freezing London.

  —sunspot Read sunspot's other letters
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