The good old music industry. You can always count on them to take something we like and bludgeon it to death.
Amy Winehouse blew us all away with her retro-soul vibe on Back in Black—and sold a whole mess of albums, too. Record companies can always smell money, and now that poor Amy can’t even drag her cracked-out arse into a recording studio, they’re cashing in with replacements. Like the lovely Welsh blonde, Duffy. You can just see the ad campaign: “She’s just like Amy Winehouse! But less likely to stab you!”
That’s all not very fair to Duffy, though, because her Rockferry is quite a nice debut: maybe not as revelatory as Back in Black, but even more rooted in classic soul. Where Back in Black is brassy and sassy, Rockferry is slow-burning and wistful in the tradition of ’60s girl groups and ’70s soul sirens; you can almost hear the vinyl crackling. This is an album for gazing out a rainy window, for looking through old photos, for the morning after.
Now if you’ve heard of Duffy, you’ve probably heard “Mercy,” the lead single off Rockferry and already a #1 hit in the UK. And it’s a great track: pulsating with raucous energy and catchy “yeah yeah yeah”s. You’ll be hearing it everywhere this summer; it’s Duffy’s “Rehab.” But in the context of the album, it’s kind of an anomaly. Everything else on Rockferry is low-key melancholy soul: more in the vein of fellow Brit and easy-listening R&B songstress Corinne Bailey Rae.
The title track and “Warwick Avenue” kick off the album nice and slow, showcasing Duffy’s endearingly squeaky vocals while strings and horns blare in the background. “Serious” kicks up the tempo a bit, but the tone stays on the sad side; in fact, most of the album’s lyrics revolve around failed and/or failing relationships. (Duffy co-wrote most of the tracks here.) The album peaks midway through with “Hanging On Too Long,” a classic should’ve-left-you-by-now torch song with Motown strings and a smoky jazz undercurrent.
Now Rockferry does all get a bit same-sounding by the end; album closer “Distant Dreamer” lays on the bombast a little thick, and it would be nice to see Duffy spread her wings a little into other genres. But what’s here goes down easy, and fills the Amy Winehouse void quite well. And the iTunes version of the album offers two stripped-down bonus tracks (“Save It For Your Prayers” and “Oh Boy”), so check that out if you need even more Duffy in your life.
I give it a strong 7.
Recommended If You Like: Amy Winehouse, Adele, Corinne Bailey Rae
