Lioness: Hidden Treasures

Once in a very long while, a voice surfaces from relative obscurity to rise to the upper echelons of pop, only to be sputter and go dark like a candle in the wind. Amy Winehouse was a raging, sputtering flame in the windy halls of pop music. Although her sudden death at age 27 came as a shock to some, and hardly a surprise to others, she made an indelible mark on the world of pop by breathing new life into the R&B genre with her edgy yet restrained vocal talent.

It seems only fitting that her tragically short life be honored by the tragically short album “Lioness: Hidden Treasures”. Comprised of 12 tracks of previously unreleased material as gathered by her former producer Salaam Remi, “Lioness” is an all-too-brief glimpse into the raw talent that Winehouse displayed when she wasn’t being harangued by the press or wrestling with her internal devils.

The first kick-off single is “Our Day Will Come” which was first recorded by one-hit-wonders Ruby and the Romantics in 1963, and brought back to life by Winehouse in 2002, the same year that she was signed by Island Records. Winehouse performs an original yet reserved ska-funk cover of the original, with her classic contralto doing the song justice while not straying too far out of bounds.

Other gems from this collection of unreleased originals, covers, alternative versions and demos include the quirky yet powerful collaboration between Winehouse and rap superstar Nas on “Like Smoke”. Originally recorded in 2008, Amy’s voice comes to us from beyond the grave with the eerily premonitory lyrics “Don’t want to get dependent on / Your time then lose the way you love me / Like smoke, I hung around in the unbalanced”. Winehouse’s vocal talents are anything but unbalanced on this track, with her smooth “Woah-oh-ah-oh” refrains floating gently over the melody.

Winehouse’s talents are never more evident than on the laid-back, sexy “Halftime”. “Simple, sweet, guitars”, croons Amy, “humbled by the bass.” Her sultry words pull you in and entrance you in a stripped-down R&B number that wouldn’t sound out of place in any smoky, after-hours jazz club from the 60’s. Her skilful manipulation of both the rhyme and the phrasing of the lyrics leave you with little wonder of why she was regarded as one of the new divas of soul in the 21st century.

Although producer Remi notes that “Lioness: Hidden Treasures” isn’t the album that Winehouse would have made if she were still alive, it nevertheless stands as a showcase of one of the most evocative and powerful voices that our generation has known. We think that Amy would want to be remembered this way – troubled, raw, and talented.