Ah, The Winehouse, or Majestic, as we call it round here. 'Back To Black' remains one of THE pop/soul albums of recent years, containing as it does, not a single duff track. I always thought the CD sounded a little too mashed, even though the plan was always that it should sound like the compressed to hell vintage Motown singles of the sixties. It made those annoying clicking noises that you get with over-compressed records. It's not hugely noticeable, but when you're obsessive about these things it becomes an issue. Thus, I was pretty chuffed to discover that a vinyl release was finally upon us and that it sounds a lot better than the CD.Now, as far I'm concerned that statement is true. A copy arrived in the post today, and it sounds wonderful. The album breathes, as well as swinging, bounding and seducing. It's hard to pin down what is so much better about the vinyl, but then I've always been like this. I love the sound of a good piece of vinyl - currently, Terry Callier's 'What Colour Is Love?' - but short of 'it's analogue', I don't really have any reasons why. Naturally, it looks pretty, but even I'm not shallow enough to buy a format for that reason alone. Anyway, this vinyl. If you have the means, track yourself down a copy and treat yourself to just over half an hour of soul indulgence. It's a modern classic, and I don't bandy that phrase around willy-nilly. (I appear to writing this live from the 1960s, based on some of my language choices this evening. Anyway, it's been a long, long day, my hay fever is ridiculous and I'm knackered.)
Till tomorrow.
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