Whiny A Mouse

Off-topic
1

I’ve just made another one of my disastrous but thankfully rare forays into contemporary culture. Previous ones included buying American Idiot (Green Day) and Employment (Kaiser Chiefs). And let’s not even mention the 80s Matchbox B Movie Disaster.

So, having read in too many newspapers that Amy Winehouse is “possibly the greatest female vocalist ever” I finally succumbed and bought the album, Back to Black. I’d hate to miss out on such a paragon of virtuosity.

Beehive hairstyle, excessive eye makeup, history of substance abuse… give me Dusty Springfield every time; she could sing.

Amy Winehouse sounds like she’s singing through one nostril, and her articulation is dreadful. Never mind the genre (my collection ranges from Slaughter and the Dogs, to Modern Jazz Quartet, to Bix Beiderbecke to Gene Vincent, to William Kimber, so I’m fairly broad minded) and never mind the heart-breaking lyrics about the vacuous life of a drugged up minor celebrity, the singing is just mediocre.

I can only conclude that all those journalists who write that someone is “probably the best ever…” haven’t listened to much. I know amateurs with better voices and articulation, and Winehouse certainly can’t stand comparison with anyone half-way decent. Brenda Lee was more fun, and P!nk leaves her for dead.

Come to think of it, it was journalists who told me Jack White was one of the greatest rock guitarists in history…

2

Agreed.

The phrase “best ever” has been quite overused in media recently. As is the use of the “top 10 list” without any context. Perhaps it is the decreasing attention span of the average media consumer that is contributing to this trend.

3

I remember in late 1999, nearly all the “best (whatever) of the millennium” were from the period after 1939. All the “best” music was from the late 1990s, with special exceptions for the Beatles and Elvis. How Mozart, Beethoven, Sinatra, Crosby and countless others would have laughed.