Amy Winehouse: Back to Black (Island)*****

SHE'S A BRAVE lass, Amy Winehouse. It's rare to find any artist changing their approach between albums, and virtually unknown if their debut was a huge success; but for her follow-up to Frank, Winehouse has shifted her emphasis from jazz to soulful R&B. It's a measure of her talents that the shift should be so effective: it has focused her talent on a smaller target, with the result that the impact has been multiplied several times over. With Back to Black, she has nothing to prove; each time she starts a song, there's no need to impress with technique; just a direct, immediate expression of the core emotion.