Missing (?) Amy WInehouse Edition

Hello to all,

Thanks for checking in. Today, it's a musical edition of "Amorphous Thoughts." Another first. Today, I wonder aloud if I miss Amy Winehouse. So you know, I don't mean for this post to come off as mean or callous. It's an absolute shame when someone goes at an early age. It's a tragedy for family and friends as well. These are just my honest thoughts I've noticed I've had when a musician passes away. Amy's case is even different to me, because there are loads of women with a similar sound. It's like she re-spawned this genre. There are so many, it's like Michael Keaton in that old movie "Multiplicity." I forget the entire premise of the movie. But, in it, Michael Keaton's character ends up with a few clones of himself. Each one with one major distinction (or defect) from the original. You'll see that this exists within Amy Winehouse's musical genre. This blog is called "Amorphous Thoughts" with good reason!

I'll post one of my favorites from each singer, including Amy Winehouse, and you can decide if the sounds are similar or not. Or, if this is another case where I'm just crazy. The list is as follows:
Joss Stone: Younger version of Amy Winehouse, minus the drug habit and personal problems (as far as we know). 24 years old, born in the part of England that is not London, has released 3 of her own albums and appeared on loads of collaborations. Joss Stone and Adele probably have the best voices of this bunch. Here is "You Had Me"

Duffy: Welsh version of Amy Winehouse, minus the drug habit and personal problems (as far as we know). 27 years old, born in Wales, released 2 albums herself. Here is "Enough Love":

Paloma Faith: A sultry, more soulful version of Amy Winehouse (again minus the personal problems). 26 years old, born in London and she's working on her 2nd album currently. Here is "Play On":

Adele: She's a heavier version of Amy Winehouse. People on the Internet are very mean about her appearance, no personal problems either. 23 years old, born in London as well, she's released 2 albums. Here is "Rolling in the Deep"

Kate Nash: A more well-rounded Amy Winehouse, she sings and  plays a few instruments. 24 years old, also from London, working on her 3rd album. Here is "Foundations"

Estelle: The only 30 something (31 yrs old) on this list. But, she too was born in London. She's released 3 albums. And, has loads of collaborations with some real heavy hitters, including John Legend and Talib Kweli. Here is: "Thank You":

And, here's my favorite from Amy (she was also from London), her version of "Valerie":

So, let's review. My first thought was, what the hell is going in London? There must be a factory in town, producing these chicks. Secondly, this list could have been longer. I didn't want to overload everyone with the videos. But, you can look at a few other artists: Lily Allen, Katie Melua, V.V. Brown. They all have similar sounds too. Talking about age, the women mentioned in this post are all within 7 years of each other in age. And, that's only because I threw Estelle in. The rest are within 4 years of each other. So, they sound very similar, they were born within a few years of each other, and in the same town (mostly). I'm starting to think they all might be related to each other. Someone's not telling the whole story, just too many coincidences here. The question is, can we really miss her when we have at least 8 reasonable facsimiles of her actual music? And, we can still listen to everything she's done already.

So, I hope I made my point. In the case of her death, there are many people with a similar style out there. Secondly, and this is a bit off the point, but I never understood fans that would mourn the death of singers (see right, re: Michael Jackson fans). You didn't know the person. You guys weren't hanging out on weekends together. And, their music lives on forever anyway. I guess some fans need to know that the person continues to exist in some world they will never enter anyway. Who knows? But, those reactions always shocked me.

We'll leave it there for today, thanks for checking in.

See you next time,
James