“You Know I’m No Good” – Amy Winehouse
(Words/music: Amy Winehouse, available on Back to Black, Republic 2006)
As marvelous as “Rehab” is, it took “You Know I’m No Good” to have interest in hearing the rest of Back to Black. Perhaps it’s residual feelings from the “single plus filler” era of albums in the late 1990s, or maybe it was the feeling that “Rehab” felt like a bolt of lightning and that a second strike wouldn’t be as electric. Regardless, it took the slightly slower “You Know I’m No Good” to pique my interest in Amy Winehouse’s songs.
Even if it seems easy now after watching Winehouse repeatedly trip over herself in the press, “Rehab” seems a little too cliché at this point. Of course, that’s part of what makes it so compelling - it gave Winehouse a larger-than-life personality to counter her larger-than-life voice. Still, I found myself drawn more to “You Know I’m No Good,” which still addresses her demons with far less caricature. If the intensity in “Rehab” made it urgent, the laid back cool works almost as well here. Mark Ronson’s production feels playful here and Winehouse follows his lead with odd similes and a reference to a Lesser Bond. She practically coos out the title line near the end of the chorus too, making the “you know I’m trouble” practically sound like a come-on rather than a put-off. Even if it’s essentially the same source material as “Rehab,” Winehouse manages to spin a different story out of the same yarn. If nothing else, it gave me reason enough to look a little deeper.
More on Amy Winehouse: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm
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