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to do this. She feels their relationship has gone stale and there is nothing new for her to learn. She has to look away when they make love because everything is so familiar and to her that’s not a good thing. She concludes that, unless he agrees to see and approach things her way, then her way will be a different way – away from him. She also memorably points out that she holds his hand only to, ahem, help him get the angle right.
    ‘Take the Box’ details the drama of a break-up. A mournful jazz song, it was chosen as a single and charted highest of all the album’s singles. During the song she hands back the presents her man gave her, including a Frank Sinatra album and a Moschino bra. As the break-up becomes more traumatic, even the neighbours get dragged into the drama. Such public laundry washing would become true in the future for Amy, of course. She concludes that someone who up until this day was beautiful has turned ugly in her eyes because of something awful he has said. This was selected as a stand-out track by many reviewers, including that of the Guardian .
    With an infectious funky guitar riff and hip-hop percussion, ‘October Song’ features a surprisingly mature vocal performance, even by Amy’s widely admired standards. Managing to produce an upbeat jazz track out of the death ofher pet canary, Amy shows a heartbreakingly sweet side to her character here. She consoles herself that her pet Ava has flown to paradise.
    A dark, soulful wah-wah guitar line dominates ‘What Is It About Men?’. Amy mourns that she has at times chosen the wrong man in her life. She feels she does this as naturally as she sings. She says her destructive side is growing and asks herself repeatedly: what is it about men? This track has been described by the Observer as ‘a sneery examination of said subject which is quite obviously about her dad and his romantic entanglements’. As for Amy, she confirmed the links with her dad. ‘It’s me trying to work out my dad’s problems with sticking with one woman, trying to make sense of why he did certain things. I completely understand it now. People like to have sex with people. I don’t begrudge my dad just because he has a penis. What’s the point?’
    For his part, Mitchell is philosophical about Amy’s wanton laundering of dirty linen. ‘I think it’s only the first part that’s specifically about me,’ he says. ‘The rest of it is more generally about what rats men are. But the song’s given me pause for thought, because the divorce obviously coloured her view of men.’
    ‘Help Yourself’ can best be seen as a sister track to ‘Stronger Than Me’. Again, Amy is berating her man for not being strong enough. She is tired of carrying him and having to hold his head above water for him. She cannot help him unless he is equally willing to help himself. Although her lover is twenty-five years old, she sees him more as a sixteen-year-old. Hisdegree in philosophy doesn’t impress her one bit because where you are now is far more important than where you have been. Again, Amy is fair and stresses that she has walked in her lover’s shoes and so understands his dilemma. All the same, she’s had enough of the situation as it stands.
    And so the album concludes with ‘Amy, Amy, Amy’, thirteen minutes and fourteen seconds of Cuban-flavoured, swinging ode to the joys of her man and the frustrations of how his sex appeal distracts her from her songwriting craft. An announcer thanks everyone for coming and says he hopes we enjoyed it. We did.
    Clocking in at just twelve seconds short of an hour’s listening, Frank certainly lived up to its title. From her asking her lover if he’s gay in the opening track to her open admissions of sexual urging in the final track, it is sharp and to the point. It is also, as Amy revealed while promoting the album, largely based on the experiences she had with one lover. ‘He’s a very proud man and I know he won’t go and buy