Walking With A Record: Amy Winehouse's 'Back To Black' + 'Valerie'
Bringing back Walking With A Record.
Last summer, I started a blog series that I abandoned fairly early on where I would walk for the entire duration of an album and then write about it. I’m bringing it back. By bringing this series back, it gives me a good opportunity to do two things: listen to new music I haven’t heard or rediscover old albums I love and shed some pounds.
Walking Stats
Total Time: 41:27
Distance: 2.51 miles
Calories Burned: 257
Amy Winehouse's Back To Black
Release Date: October 27, 2006
Run Time: 34:56
Genres: Soul, R&B, Pop
One of my all time favorite artists is Amy Winehouse, an R&B queen who died way too soon. When I was at the movies recently seeing Lisa Frankenstein, I saw the trailer for the upcoming biopic about her, which looks like it could completely bastardize her career and not hold people accountable, but that’s neither here nor there. When I left the theater, I shuffled some Amy Winehouse I had saved and jammed to it on my ride home. Since then, I’ve been listening to here repeatedly and opted to make one of my favorite albums, Back To Black, the first one I walked to.
The album was inspired by her temporary break up with her then ex-boyfriend and future husband Blake Fielder-Civil. Fielder-Civil left Winehouse to pursue his ex-girlfriend, but Fielder-Civil and Winehouse later got back together and got married. Then divorced two years later. But in the time where the two were broken up, Winehouse hit the studio and recorded one of the greatest albums about guilt, grief, heartbreak and infidelity. A lot of the time, an artist will write an album about guilt or heartbreak, but it’s not apparent. That’s far from the case in Back To Black. In songs like Some Unholy War or Love is a Losing Game, you can feel that she poured her heart into making the album. There’s legit pain behind the lyrics and her voice.
My Three Favorite
3. Rehab
2. He Can Only Hold Her
1. Tears Dry On Their Own
In addition to listening to the whole Back To Black album, I finished my walk with my personal favorite song from Winehouse, Valerie. I found a different version of it recently off Mark Ronson’s 2007 album, Version, that’s super upbeat and jazzy. It’s not only a great song to workout to, but it’s become my go-to song to sing in the car (when I’m alone) and in the shower.
Should You Walk To It?
While it is one of my favorite albums of all time, I don’t know if I’d fully recommend walking or jogging to it. There are songs on the album that I’d add to your walking or jogging playlist like Tears Dry On Their Own or Rehab, but some of the slower, jazzier songs on the album don’t serve as great songs to workout to.