Duffy reviewed
Duffy
Rockferry
(Mercury)
Sprung by a teenage Joss Stone, the female British soul renaissance exploded with Amy Winehouse and now enters the 21st century via Duffy.
Duffy’s Rockferry, which already topped the charts in the U.K., is a much more concerted leap than her more conservative predecessors. Winehouse might be a glorified meth fiend whose “Rehab” foretold her misfortunes, but her sound was straight Motown when it wasn’t unimaginatively crossed with hip-hop. Not quite the insult of “modern R&B,” Rockferry gets points for trying to create its own niche between post-Spice Girls superpop, Kate Nash, and that elusive realm of British camp.
Anyone looking for a message ought to walk right by, though the album has some balls tucked under its white-girl/black-music charade; the invocations of “Heard It Through The Grapevine” (“Hanging On Too Long”) and “Stand By Me” (“Mercy”) on consecutive tracks are more than a little intentional. Instead of matching the brassy hustle of Diana Ross or Martha Reeves, however, Duffy hangs back on her lonely vibrato. Staying with what buffets the first five tracks breeds success, and ultimately that should serve her career well.
— Steve Forstneger
