Duffy. Photo / Supplied
Rating: 3/5
Verdict: Has no Mercy
On her debut album Duffy (full name Aimee Duffy) took listeners back to the 50s, then two years later she's taking them to a night club in LA.
The tiny, doe-eyed blonde from Northern Wales stole the British soul-queen crown from Amy Winehouse when she
broke on to the scene with her swinging boomer of a hit Mercy on album Rockefeller, but this effort is less ground-breaking.
She's hung on to her trademark raspy, soulful voice and childlike energy but instead of channelling yesteryear, she's opted for an awkward anachronism of a mash-up of the old and new. It could have been a very exciting pairing but too often the ideas fail to co-exist and it feels clunky, disjointed, and even irritating,
Opener My Boy lacks the nostalgia that made her gamine voice charming. Crammed with synths, it sounds more plastic than anything we have heard before.
However, stick it out, as the Duffy of 2008 gets her groove on in the first single Well, Well, Well; and the ballad Don't Forsake Me, which could be a slow-dance song at a dance in a community hall in the 70s, nails nostalgic-chic.
At only 10 songs it's a succinct album that shows off Duffy's vocal range and hits in waves of aching strings, then grunty bass and dance-floor pulse.
Hard For the Heart is a sincere little gem at the end, however as with the others, it's just lacking a little of Rockefeller's personality.
-TimeOut
