The audio: After years of receiving attention mostly for her tabloid antics, Amy Winehouse is finally back in the news for her musical talent with a leaked recording of her rendition of Lesley Gore's 1963 song "It's My Party." The track is reportedly one of three she worked on with producer Mark Ronson for a Quincy Jones tribute album set for release on Nov. 9. Here she slurs and sing-speaks her way through Gore's girlish pop classic, which was one of Jones' early hits as a producer, to give it a uniquely Amy update.
The reaction: "Winehouse lets it fly" here and it's a success, says Amos Barshad in New York. In this "muscular vocal performance" she "moves effortlessly from louche to anguished — and sounds not even a tiny bit horribly addicted to drugs while doing so." Well, frankly, it's not entirely clear whether Amy's slurred vocals "are stylistic or substance-related," says Leah Greenblatt in Entertainment Weekly. This definitely isn't "the most coherent vocal ever laid to tape," says Tim Jonze in The Guardian, "although if there's ever a song where you can let it all go a bit runny-mascara-and-10-Bacardi-Breezers then this is it." Listen for yourself: