Lioness: Hidden Treasures 2LP

The compilation is good and everything else is fine too.

The posthumously released ‘Lioness: Hidden Treasures’ contains 12 previously unreleased archive recordings selected by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi. It was released in December 2011, timed for the first Christmas season following Amy’s death.While this collection does not claim or pretend to be Amy’s ‘third album’, it’s more than just barrel-scrapings of unreleased bits and pieces and does gel together as a listenable whole. A few of the recordings are true vintage and pre-date the ‘Frank’ sessions, notably a slightly over-the-top rendition of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ completely absent the mellow vibe of Jobim & Gilberto’s original, and Amy’s own early composition ‘Half Time’ from 2002.Standout tracks are Amy’s ‘Between the Cheats’ confessing her infidelity in song, a stripped-down and frankly superior alternate take of ‘Valerie’, a magnificent cover of Garson & Hillard’s ‘Our Day will Come’ and a duet with Amy’s 85-year old jazz icon Tony Bennett ‘Body & Soul’.So overall this is a fine collection of leftovers, selected and produced with care and skill by Ronson and Remi. While not quite up to the overall high standard of ‘Frank’ or 'Back to Black’ it’s more than just OK and a fitting tribute to a great jazz talent. What a pity Amy didn’t have a more positive attitude to rehab; she might still be with us and have had a singing career as long and successful as her idols Sinatra and Bennett.

Someone gave this a 3 star becasue they thought someone a guy was singing rather than Amy. This is a 45rpm record so you need to change the rpm setting on your record player!! Most 12inch records run at 33rpm, this runs at 45 and sounds amazing. Sounded like Amy was in the room , gave me shivers. Such a well mastered record . Well done!

I am disappointed with this double album because side three and side four are not Amy Winehouse but from what I can hear are two male voices which I didn't expect and although not unpleasant, is not what I paid for so I am looking for a refund or return or some solution from the seller.

I have all the rest of Amy's available recordings but delayed purchasing Lioness until now expecting something very much second league, not on a par with Back To Black. If you too have deferred buying this posthumous release, I'd urge you to invest in it now as you'll probably deem it much better than the mixed reviews led you to believe. There are a couple of weaker tracks - to my ears, 'Girl From Ipanema' and 'I Only Want To Be With You' but even these are not without merit. A less than stupendous Amy product is, after all, likely to be about ten times superior to a 'failed' album by any one of her contemporaries.One thing I really liked about Lioness is the way in which to me it seems to foreshadow what the more mature Winehouse vocal approach may have encompassed had she lived. If you believe that in singing there's no room for less than perfect diction or phrasing or whatever, well tell that to Robert Zimmerman. Where the word sounds are less than crisp, on Lioness I reckon what comes out strong and balances it all up is raw and real emotion - still controlled but at times seeming impressionistic, like a painting, an abstract of how it feels to be alive. The voice becomes truly an instrument, all centred on the sound and less directly upon its meaning.'Best Friends, Right?' is a searingly honest account of a one sided love gone west - it will make you wince. There is humour here too - as always with Amy. There is a very rich seam of Amy to be mined here. All it takes is for you to open your ears and your mind.In this increasingly cynical world where the 'right' response is sadly all too often the sneer, I actually believe those responsible for producing this album did so entirely for the right reasons. They were keen to give something to Amy's many fans but I think they also cared very much that her rightly stellar reputation as a vocalist should not be sullied by the release of a sub-standard album. Here we have the voice but also an intimation of Amy's vulnerability. In my view, it is that vulnerability which so informs her work to raise it to levels unsurpassed by any vocalist of recent times.You could say I like this a lot. Listen to it, don't compare it to Amy's other albums. You might like it too.

Arrived really quick.Its for a present for my hubby who loves Amy,so will have to let you know what he thinks to the songs? Didn't know about this album,so it will be a nice surprise for him.Already bought Back to Black a few weeks ago and was looking for another present so got this and a bio book.