Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 07/24/2011 at 3:44 PM News

The Popdust Files: amy winehouse, iTunes, Upcoming album

Though Amy Winehouse had still yet to release the official follow-up to her 2006 breakthrough album Back to Black at the time of her recent death, she had been working on what should have ended up as her third studio album for some time. The story goes that she was shuttling between recording stuff in line with her trademark soul sound with Back to Black producer Mark Ronson and more reggae-tinged material hanging out in St. Lucia, the latter group of songs Island records were said to have been none too fond of. Amy previously promised that the album would be out January of this year, but she obviously missed that deadline, no doubt helped little by her falling out with Ronson again late last year.

Reports have varied significantly as to what stage the album is in at this point, and whether there will be enough material for a full-length new album of Amy’s to be released posthumously. “She has finally finished the album and it’s ready to go,” a source apparently told The People in May. “[Island Records] were just about to finalise a release date and then this happened.” (The “this” referred to was Amy’s most recent trip to rehab, which also put a wrench in the new album’s creation.) Winehouse protege Dionne Bromfield also claimed to have heard the final album, telling Digital Spy that it was “very good.” But no one from the label has confirmed the album’s completion or posted a release date, and there’s yet to be any music from it that’s seen the light of day, so we will have to wait to see in what shape the music recorded will eventually be released—whether as an actual album, as an era compilation, or as part of a larger greatest hits or other retrospective.

In the meantime, the public’s appetite for Winehouse’s music has understandably surged, with fans flocking to iTunes to consume the singer’s old music once more. Back to Black is currently the most-downloaded album on the site, with three songs on the album currently ranking in the top 100 of the singles charts: “Rehab” (#12), “You Know I’m No Good” (#35) and “Back to Black” (#41), with her Mark Ronson collaboration “Valerie” coming in at #59. Already highly anticipated, a new Amy Winehouse album would have to be considered one of the year’s most hottest releases at this point, so we’ll be sure to post any new information about the album as it trickles down the pipeline.