Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

Back to Black, Amy Winehouse's second album, came out on Island on 27 October 2006, and it turned out to be her last. She built it out of the wreckage of her stormy relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, who walked out for a spell to chase an old flame, and the songs pick over the damage: guilt, grief, cheating, heartbreak and the scars they leave.

She went looking for the pop and soul of the '60s girl groups and found two producers who could take her there. Salaam Remi cut songs with her at Instrumental Zoo in Miami; Mark Ronson worked with her in New York alongside Sharon Jones' band the Dap-Kings, at Chung King Studios and Daptone Records; and Tom Elmhirst mixed the whole thing at Metropolis in London. The band swings like a vintage soul revue, and Winehouse's voice, smoky and sardonic, cuts straight through it. "Rehab" swaggers, "You Know I'm No Good" slinks, the title track plays like a funeral march for a love affair, and "Tears Dry on Their Own" and "Love Is a Losing Game" rounded out the five singles.

It sold 20 million copies around the world, and in Britain only one album of the 21st century has outsold it. At the 2008 Grammys it won Best Pop Vocal Album and was up for Album of the Year, with Winehouse collecting 4 more trophies that night. It was shortlisted for the 2007 Mercury Prize, and in 2025 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.