If you buy Amy Winehouse’s posthumous album anticipating a record symptomatic to ‘Back to Black,’ I would suggest you readjust your expectations. Possibly, and sadly, the last record we will hear from the soulful songstress, it is just as it as sold: a collection of hidden treasures.

The album was approved by Winehouse’s family before its release. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, described listening to his daughter’s voice once more as “very emotional.” In the end, it was up to her family whether it was to be released or not. “It was a very difficult time for us,” he said, “we all had to be in agreement that the album was of the same quality or better, in fact, than ‘Frank’ and ‘Back to Black,’ and we were more than pleasantly surprised.”

It’s not hard to see why. In this, her third album, we are shown how truly diverse she and her famous voice were. There are many inspired covers, unusual duets, and a return to the jazzy roots that started her career with the under-the-radar debut album ‘Frank.’

The beginning track, ‘Our Day Will Come,’ is an excellent opening to pull in fans of both reggae and 60′s motown alike. A cover of the 1963 classic by Ruby and the Romantics, a new modern reggae spin has been added into the mix, and Winehouse’s voice has never sounded so fresh. She is like a different person; the tone is light, happy and devoid of the deep, slurred notes in many of her heavier songs.

We are eased into the album with many tracks supported by the classic Winehouse/Ronson beat that is so familiar to our bones, yet the singing becomes more abstract and scatty, reminiscent of her jazzy days. ‘Like Smoke’ has qualities of ‘He Can Only Hold Her’ around it and sees her pairing with rapper Nas, with whom she was rumoured to be close and even honoured in the song ‘Me and Mr. Jones.’

Halfway in, songs, such as ‘Halftime’ and a new version of ‘Wake Up Alone,’ present what seems to be Winehouse in her most comfortable place. The beat is relaxed, the melody is more intangible, and Winehouse’s voice rings out with personal lyrics about her love of jazz: “My lyrics revealing some natural vibes / Some kind of laidback feeling / Oh, just let it ride.”

The last song on the album can only be described as the perfect encapsulation of Winehouse. The soulfulness with which she sings Donny Hathaway’s ‘A Song For You’ is strictly divine and a true testament to the original version.

A snippet of the singer’s thoughts on Hathaway have been left on the end of the track, provoking comparison between the two and their troubled lives: Hathaway suffered greatly from depression and paranoid schizophrenia. He died tragically at the age of thirty-three. Winehouse comments pensively, “He couldn’t contain himself…he had something in him, you know?”

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Pete Doherty planned to dedicate his sets at Reading And Leeds Festivals to his former co-star Amy Winehouse last 26 August to 28 August.

Reports on tabloids and Daily Star suggested that Doherty would make his own tribute to the singer. Sources said the two stars were really close friends. Doherty was willing to dedicate his festival gigs to her memory because he loved her music. The star admits the news had beaten him really hard. He still can believe they have lost such a great artist and friend.

“I was in bed when I heard the news of her death. Someone had to wake me up to tell me. I couldn’t take it in and still can’t. Coming to terms with what has happened is almost impossible. It’s hard to think she’s not with us anymore,” Doherty said.

Pete Doherty covered Amy Winehouses’ “Tears Dry on Their Own” at the Leeds festival.  He made his Leeds Festival debut with The Libertines back in 2002. After missing the band’s 2003 and 2004 appearances there, he was temporarily suspended from the group. He played twice in the Festival with Babyshambles before last year’s reunion.

The show was on unreleased material. Doherty played “Stranger In My Own Skin”, his own solo and Babyshambles set lists before, even it has never been officially released. He ended his show with the song “Fuck Forever.”

There were many opinions about Peter Doherty’s performance. A fan in the festival’s crowd said“It was good, obviously it would have been great if The Libertines could have come back but it’s always good to see Pete onstage playing the Libs songs, they do sound good acoustically. The Amy tribute was a lovely touch too”.

As well as Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty can’t escape from his drug’s past. He was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to cocaine possession.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court, in his hometown London, Judge David Radford made his sentence.

“From what I have heard and what I have read there is no doubt that you are a talented and successful musician. However, you have an appalling record of committed offences of the kind for which you fall to be sentenced today,” Radford said

This was the third time Pete Doherty has been jailed. Last 2003, he went to prison for burgling his Libertines band mate Carl Barat’s flat. In 2008 he was jailed for breaching probation rules. Last may, Pete Doherty got released from jail.

“On this bright sunny morning Peter was released from prison and thanks everyone for their valued support while inside,” stated a message on the website Albion Rooms after Pete Doherty’s release.

Doherty’s manager, Adrian Hunter also gave thanks online to the singer’s fans for the support they had given.

“Peter has been released as was reported there hours ago. Long day folks but a happy one. Many good things done. All’s good and peace and quiet shall now ensue. A bit of ‘bedding in’ and reflection is on the cards and so much the better,” she said.

Unfortunately he might face five more years in prison after being caught breaking into a record shop in Germany and attempting to steal a guitar.

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Amy Winehouse’s family and close friends said their last goodbyes at the private ceremony at Edgwarebury Cemetery. Her father, Mitchell Winehouse said goodbye to his daughter at the private ceremony in North London.

“Goodnight, my angel, sleep tight. Mummy and Daddy love you ever so much,” he said.

Her issues with drugs and alcohol have been well documented. Winehouse died alone in her bed as many addicts are, alone in the dark fighting off demons. It is still unclear whether she took an overdose of drugs or a lethal combination or bad drugs, (or none of the above) but according to rumors, those disastrous habits are probably the cause of her death.

Winehouse never got on top of her disease. It controlled her for the majority of her short life, right up until the very end.

She joined the “27 Club” — also known as the Forever 27 Club or the Curse of 27 — alongside Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Dave Alexander of the Stooges and Kurt Cobain. The 27 Club is the title for a group of influential musicians who all died at the age of 27 and they all are generally considered to have led a “rock and roll” lifestyle.

Unfortunately, she never received the help she so badly needed. Media is full of clips showing her stumbling across the stage during a show and it is well known, Winehouse wasn’t a fan of rehab and wrote a hit song about it.

“They tried to make me go to rehab but I said no, no, no,” she sang.

An article in the Daily Mail said, “Generous Amy Winehouse spent £130,000 sending her friend Alex Foden to rehab, when perhaps she should have spent it curing herself.”

It’s easy for those who are not addicts to judge and make comments about drug addicts or alcoholics because most people are lucky enough to have a mind that knows when to stop.

Things are very different in the minds of addicts. Most people may believe that if she had just checked herself in, she could have walked away from all those poisons. Sadly, things are not as easy as many people think. Rehab can give the tools, but each person has to walk the road alone. Only Amy Winehouse could have helped Amy Winehouse, but she didn’t ask to be an addict in the first place.

Broadcaster Piers Morgan struck out at Winehouse’s record company and promoters in the wake of the singer’s death. He claimed that Winehouse did not receive enough support from “the people making money out of her” as she battled her personal problems.

Morgan said to Access Hollywood,“I do blame people. Where were all the people making money out of her when it mattered? Really, where were they? You know, it’s just not good enough that they’re all going to make millions out of it now she’s dead. You know, the album ’Back To Black’ is number one… but people let her down.”

In her short life, Winehouse won five Grammys and three Ivor Novello awards, among many others. She had sold thousands of records and was popular at the time of her death.

She received her first guitar when she was 13, and began writing music a year later. She began working soon after as a journalist in addition to singing with local group the Bolsha Band. Her special talent couldn’t go unnoticed for long. She became commercially known singing jazz. She seamlessly blended old R&B with the music of jazz crooners and came up with something that sounded simultaneously fresh and classic.

An anonymous source close to Winehouse’s record label has said that the late singer had recorded around 12 new songs which may now see the light of day. She had been in and out of the studio for the last three years, according to the spokesperson. If any new material is released, it would have to be decided on by her parents, as well as her label and management company, reports The Guardian.

Winehouse achieved what she did without compromise. Many singers will come and go having small moments of popularity but there will be one Amy Winehouse.

The fact is that the majority of musicians who made a huge career, from rock bands to individually artists, their careers had something to do with drugs and some sort of addicted habits. Many popular songs were written during drug use and it is difficult to know whether or not the songs would be the same if written under sober conditions.

In one or another way music and drugs are correlated. The true inspiration may only exist when they move from the reality to another place and there you find the great conception. It is not just luck that some of the greatest songs were written during drug use. Probably only in their personal moment of use they had those great inspirations. Fortunately or unfortunately, music would not have been the same without drugs.

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