A Back to Black tone

The next Tupac? Could Amy Winehouse have the best posthumous album ever?

There have been a number of strange, sad and touching tidbits leaking out in the week since troubled but brilliant singer Amy Winehouse's death — Winehouse reportedly reached out to celebutherapist Dr. Drew, she was adopting a child from St. Lucia (that one's been debunked), her family is giving her clothes to fans.

But for fans of her music, there's at least some music talk amidst the tragedy of Winehouse's death. According to British newspapers, Winehouse had been recording and writing sporadically for the past two to three years, and has left behind demos and the framework of about a dozen songs. The Guardian says there might be enough material for more than one album.

I'm not suggesting her label veer into Tupac territory — his label has released seven albums since his death, including one as recently as last year — but for her fans, the chance to hear more from a truly unique talent is heartening.

According to The Guardian's source, the songs around have a similar tone to her seminal Back to Black album, which won Winehouse five Grammy awards:

"People were getting very excited, quite frankly they were really good. We heard rough cuts and they sounded like vintage Amy."

Though the tracks are admittedly in the early stages, one could imagine Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, the producers who knew Winehouse well and collaborated with her to acclaim on Back to Black, could create some of the same magic.

According to The Daily Mail, Winehouse had written in large part about the turmoil in her two-year marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil, which in its own way is favorable. While Winehouse showed great promise on her debut album, Frank, it was her tales of heartbreak and loss in love — and the demons that haunted her personal life — that inspired her best work.

'Amy always had a notebook on her and would write down lyrics and ideas,' [a spokesman for the Winehouse family] said. 'People who have heard the new songs say that they are very, very good and that they are as autobiographical as ever. The period after 2006 was when Amy went through the most emotional upheaval, with Blake going to prison and then their divorce.'"

Judging by the renewed interest in her music — Back to Black topped the British charts in the week after her death, and sold 37,000 copies in the United States in the same time — it's clear that there are enough interested parties to put an album together, though any effort will have to be approved by her parents, her manager and her label.

But can an album cobbled together from demos ever really live up to the music that Winehouse released in her lifetime?

Several noteworthy posthumous releases, including Notorious B.I.G.'s eerily appropriate Life After Death and Closer by Joy Division were completed while the artists were still around. But hits like Janis Joplin's Pearl, King of Hearts by Roy Orbison and essentially the entire Otis Redding catalog, as well as works by Patsy Cline and Bob Marley prove that the voice of an artist doesn't have to die with them.

Would you want to hear a new Amy Winehouse album? What's the best posthumous release of all time?

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Movie Review

Jude Law battles white supremacy in real-life crime thriller The Order

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Jude Law in The Order.

White supremacy has long been a stand-in for evil in movies, with the correlation easy to make given the strong ties to Nazi Germany. Whether a film puts forth white supremacists as its main characters or supporting ones, their usefulness in a story is as people who are easy to hate and that deserve to be held to some sort of justice.

While that idea holds true in the new film, The Order, the nature of the group featured is somewhat muddled. The central figure is FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law), who essentially sets up a one-man task force in the Pacific Northwest to track a group known as The Order. Husk is convinced that the group, which is an offshoot of a larger white supremacist organization, is behind a series of bank robberies to fund anti-government schemes.

Husk recruits local police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) to help follow the group, which is led by Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult). The two, joined occasionally by FBI agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), do their best to keep up with The Order’s increasingly bold crimes, which morphs from “just” bank robbery to murder.

Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, the film is at its best when it delves into the personalities of its characters. Husk’s monomaniacal nature is great for his job, but not so much for his family life. Bowen has a solid bond with his wife and kids, but his greenness in law enforcement leads to some questionable decision-making. Mathews, like many cult leaders, is a charismatic person with very misguided tendencies.

The filmmakers set up the plot (which is based on a real-life story) well, but the details get a little loose as the film goes along. While The Order has a hatred of Jews, a plot against radio personality Alan Berg (Marc Maron) doesn’t make much sense in the context of the film. The geography of the group’s operations is also confusing; they’re located in Washington, but they range out as far as Colorado and California to commit their crimes.

Still, the inherent appeal of good-vs-evil keeps the plot mechanics going, and the side stories of the main characters give them a depth that makes up for other faults. The filmmakers also make sure to demonstrate how the scourge of white supremacy has never been limited to one particular era, and continues to infect American society to this day.

Law commits fully to the lead role, giving a performance with a convincing American accent that is far from the suave British parts which have dominated his filmography. Hoult proves equally believable, giving his character a nuance that somehow makes him more detestable. Sheridan adds another interesting role to a career that would be enviable for any other young actor.

While The Order doesn’t rise to the level of an awards contender, its story is still relatively compelling with antagonists that, unfortunately, never go out of style. A great cast playing characters with engaging lives keeps the film watchable even when it goes into some odd detours.

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The Order is now playing in theaters.

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