FEATURE:
A Frank Discussion
Exploring Amy Winehouse’s Remarkable, Open and Affecting Debut Album
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IN terms of albums that…
are underrated and are living in the shadow of their more successful and noted follow-up, Amy Winehouse’s debut, Frank, stands there with the best of them. On 23rd July, it will be a decade since we lost a remarkable artist. It seems scarcely believable it has been that long! Winehouse’s legacy and influence lives on through her stunning music, her fans and other musicians. I often wonder where Winehouse could have gone after the remarkable Back to Black – which turns fifteen on 26th October. Some say that Frank lacks real originality, and there are few tracks where Winehouse stuns and soars. I would disagree. In terms of some album information, this article provides more detail:
“Frank is debut studio album by English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse. It was released on 20 October 2003 by Island Records. Production for the album took place during 2002 to 2003 and was handled by Winehouse, Salaam Remi, Commissioner Gordon, Jimmy Hogarth and Matt Rowe. Its title alludes to the nature and tone of Winehouse's lyrics on the album, as well as one of her influences, Frank Sinatra.
Upon its release, Frank received generally positive reviews from most music critics and earned Winehouse several accolades, including an Ivor Novello Award. The album has sold over one million copies in the United Kingdom and has been certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI)”.
I am going to source a couple of review for Frank in a minute. I think that there are clear influences on the album, yet Winehouse never wears them too heavily on her sleeves. I think Back to Black is a more dramatic, sweeping and somewhat love-lost album. There is greater lightness on Frank. Whilst we do not have songs as cinematic and stirring as Back to Black and Love Is a Losing Game, there is so much quality and natural talent bursting through. Stronger Than Me is a remarkable opener, whilst In My Bed is a song that showcases Winehouse’s incredible voice. Eighteen years after Frank’s release and I don’t think we have seen anything since then that has the same sounds and components. There are modern artists where one can detect a link to Winehouse (such as Jorja Smith), through I think that she remains untouchable. Her debut shows so much promise and signs of what she would create on Back to Black. I want to bring in a review from The A.V. Club:
“Amy Winehouse arrived on these shores with a big voice, big hair, big story, big screaming tabloid headlines, big hits, big sound, big album (Back To Black) and one hellacious appetite for self-destruction. But she was already an established artist in her native England before Back In Black transformed her into an international pop icon. Now Universal is capitalizing on her stateside popularity with the U.S. release of her 2003 coffee-shop-friendly debut, Frank. Frank traffics in bratty attitude and retro sounds, but instead of Black's almost oppressively catchy Motown/girl-group stomp, the album features languid, wide-open neo-soul grooves and jazzy vamping: Think Erykah Badu with Nancy Spungen's Neanderthal taste in men. On the first song, "Stronger Than Me," Winehouse admonishes an Alan Alda type overly in touch with his feelings to stop being so thoughtful, considerate, and sensitive, and start behaving like a man. The songcraft is looser and more organic than Black's, but also more ramshackle and meandering, with Winehouse's fluid cooing filling in the empty spaces and doodling airily in the margins. Thanks largely to timing, Frank inevitably feels like a warm-up for Black, but as rough drafts go, this one's a keeper”.
There are hugely positive reviews for Frank. Most seem to be mainly positive, but they hint at weaknesses and a sense that she can go on to better things. I would like to think that there will be a new version of Frank released with extra tracks that then gets some fresh reviews. I think that it is one of the most impressive debut albums of the first decade of the 2000s. I listen to Frank now and it never fails to impress, move me and provoke so many different emotions. I will wrap up but, first, a review from PopMatters caught my eye:
“Quite possibly the most interesting about Frank is that it doesn’t sound much like it’s follow-up. While hip-hop producer Salaam Remi is on board for good chunks of both albums (and is behind the boards for Frank‘s more adventurous cuts), the post doo-wop flavor so prevalent on Black to Black isn’t here. What you wind up with is an album that walks the midpoint between Erykah Badu and Norah Jones. With that said, it’s only slightly less musically appealing than Winehouse’s current album, and a quick listen to the lyrics reveals no doubt as to who wrote these songs. The caustic attitude and real-life situations that made so many folks flock to Back to Black was there from Day One.
Album highlights include the Roots-ish “Stronger Than Me”, during which she completely emasculates a boyfriend, questioning his sexuality and saying he’s “longer than frozen turkey” (no, I don’t know what that means, either. Must be a British thing). She reinforces her affinity for hip-hop by flowing flawlessly over the aggressive breakbeat from Nas’s “Made You Look” (also produced by Remi) on the melodic “In My Bed”. Along the way, she dedicates a song to her guitar (“Cherry”), takes a hilarious look at gold-digging women (“F*** Me Pumps”), and stops to give us heartbreaking ballads like the delicate “(There Is) No Greater Love”. Hints of the self-destructive streak that would lyrically color Back to Black are present on songs like “What Is It About Men” and “Amy Amy Amy”.
What Frank winds up reinforcing is the fact that Winehouse’s success (unlike name-your-current-American-female-vocalist) is based on pure talent rather than good producers or gimmicks. From a musical standpoint, her two albums are quite different, but they’re both excellent works. From a lyrical and vocal standpoint, she has few peers in her age group. Anyone who fell in love with Back to Black would be wise to check this out (provided they didn’t already get the jump and purchase this as an import). The woman’s talent is undeniable. Let’s hope she sticks around long enough for us to enjoy even more of it”.
In July, when we remember Winehouse ten years after she died, Frank will get new focus and inspection. I think her departure was one of the greatest losses for the music world. After two different and incredible albums, there were some predicting she would become an icon and superstar. I think she is anyway, though I do still think of how big and remarkable Winehouse could have been with more time. I love listening to Frank, as it seems to be a singer less troubled and hounded than on Back to Black. By 2006, Winehouse was definitely in the media’s gaze. One gets the impression that a lot of the angst and heartache in the album can be attributed to the way she was constantly under the spotlight and being vilified. A fresher-faced, freer album means that Frank will remain very special and important. I would encourage anyone to listen to Frank the entire way through. It is a wonderful work that introduced the world to a peerless talent. Ahead of the tenth anniversary of Winehouse’s passing, a new generation of listeners will happen upon her work and be introduced to a sensational artist. To me, Frank is a truly…
CAPTIVATING debut.