Does Amy Winehouse's posthumous album live up to her legacy?

Vault-emptying collections rarely measure up to a late artist's standards. Lioness: Hidden Treasures attempts to buck the trend

Amy Winehouse's posthumous album spotlights her unique voice, but critics say it lacks the emotional rawness that characterized the late singer's tumultuous life.
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Nearly six months after Amy Winehouse's tragic death in July, a new collection of music from the fiery singer has hit stores. Lioness: Hidden Treasures, released Tuesday, is a posthumous compilation of tracks that the soulful singer recorded before her alcohol-induced death. The album is a mix of covers, alternate versions of previously released songs, and two tracks she had reportedly been working on for her long-awaited follow-up to the Grammy-winning Back to Black. Posthumous records have a spotty history. Look back no further than Michael, released just after Michael Jackson's 2009 death, for an example of a hastily cobbled together collection of subpar tracks that fail to measure up to a beloved singer's legacy. Does Lioness live up to Winehouse's previous efforts?

It lacks her trademark rawness: On Lioness, Winehouse is awfully "vanilla," says Kitty Empire at the U.K.'s Guardian. Missing her emotionally unhinged vulnerability, the album is "perfectly enjoyable, but tame." Sure, Winehouse sounds great on her cover of the '60s classic "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." And an original cut of her signature "Tears Dry on My Own" — a "slow, regret-laden torch song" — recalls the Winehouse we knew. But in the end, Lioness is "a flawed memorial for a flawed star."

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