The audio: Two unreleased Amy Winehouse songs leaked online Thursday, offering a preview of the singer's posthumous album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures. (Listen to the songs below.) The 12-track album, coming Dec. 5, will feature alternate versions of Winehouse hits (like "Valerie"), previously unreleased tracks, and new compositions that the 27-year-old recorded before her untimely July death, which has since been attributed to alcohol abuse. One of the leaked songs is a reggae cover of the 1963 Ruby & the Romantics hit "Our Day Will Come," while the other, "Like Smoke," is an original collaboration with rapper Nas, who reportedly finished recording his verses after Winehouse died.
The reaction: The songs "evoke bittersweet memories," says Reuters. Indeed, "Our Day Will Come" is a "gleeful knockabout," says Dan Martin at NME, that represents the real Amy — not the caricature the "[media] circus would have us remember." And on the "unsurprisingly jazzy" song "Like Smoke," Winehouse sounds "appropriately smokey," says Marc Hogan at Spin, though the track is weighed down by Nas' "slightly heavy-handed rhymes." Look, listening to "Like Smoke" is "giving us chills," says Vh1, but "we can't help but wonder if we'd take the same sentiment from the song if it had been released during Amy's lifetime." Have a listen:
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