Album review: Duffy, 'Endlessly'
1.5 stars (out of 4)
Welsh singer Aimée Ann Duffy’s 2008 debut, “Rockferry,” filled the Brit retro-soul vacuum left by Amy Winehouse’s implosion. Less confrontational than Winehouse but just as indebted to ‘60s Motown/Stax tropes, Duffy went on to sell 6.5 million albums worldwide.
The follow-up, “Endlessly” (Mercury), finds her replacing her Brit-based production team (with included Suede’s Bernard Butler) with American music veteran Albert Hammond Sr. The approach remains pretty much the same, a mannered, personality-free imitation of singers who originated this style in the U.K. decades ago (Dusty Springfield, you’re missed).
Duffy’s pinched voice warbles into Lulu land pretty frequently, and that squeakiness isn’t helped much by the music: five ballads swathed in strings and heartache, five uptempo tracks with a bit more bounce but not much attitude. When Duffy talks back, adopting a scolding, finger-wagging mode in “Well, Well, Well,” a glimmer of what might have been emerges. It doesn’t hurt that Roots drummer Questlove Thompson puts a little giddy-up in her step. But much of the rest is a quagmire of clichés, whether the beaten-down bleating of “Too Hurt to Dance” or the clunkiness of would-be anthem “Hard for the Heart.”
greg@gregkot.com