Like Smoke

It would be easy to attribute the heartbreak effect of ‘Like Smoke’, the first track from Amy Winehouse’s posthumous Lioness album, to the tragic circumstances of her death, but the song is so deliciously earnest, I reckon it would yield an identical reaction if I’d first heard it six months ago. Amy’s “I never wanted you to be my man/ I just need your company” refrain is divinely delivered in her trademark purr and the ever-glorious Nas does well not to treat the song as a eulogy to the deceased torch singer. “I be out in London, Camden/ Huntin’ for the answers,” he spits, “Why did God take away the homie?/ I can’t stand it”, before going on to rhyme about his own doomed romance. A timeless track featuring not one, but two star performances.