Duffy - Endlessly

Debuts don't get much bigger than Rockferry, the six million-plus selling album from Welsh singer and songwriter Duffy. Combining her own self-penned songs with a classic nostalgic sound of girl groups, Phil Spector-ish 60's production and a distinctively nasal Dusty Springfield-meets-Eartha Kitt vibrato, Duffy and a group of accomplished studio knob twiddlers (including Bernard Butler) made Rockferry the biggest-selling album in the U.K. of 2008. Since then, a series of management changes and recording starts and stops have fueled speculation of a sophomore slump but Endlessly (Mercury), her new December 7 long-player just may quiet the naysayers.

The key ingredient on the new project is Albert Hammond, a pop songwriter whose work has spanned generations and spawned a variety of covered hits (and he's the proud papa of The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr.). Co-writing the songs on Endlessly, Hammond brings a pop focus to the album and a dramatic shift from Rockferry's multiple producer and co-writer strategy. Lead single "Well Well Well" has a killer hook and a rhythm section jolt from Philly's fine funksters The Roots but it also takes Duffy's unique vocals to a repetitive, near shrill bleat. Better is the tender title track ballad, Duffy's girlish, quavering voice perfectly matched to the 60's prom-queen atmosphere.

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Duffy - "Endlessly" (live version from Jools Holland)

Duffy - "Well Well Well" (from Endlessly)

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