Track Listing

1. Rockferry
2. Warwick Avenue
3. Serious
4. Stepping Stone
5. Syrup & Honey
6. Hanging On Too Long
7. Mercy
8. Delayed Devotion
9. Scared
10. Distant Dreamer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #467 in Music
• Brand: Mercury
• Released on: 2008-05-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
The most hotly anticipated album release of this New Year comes not from someone rammed into the collective consciousness by their media ubiquity. Duffy is an unknown quantity at this point, having performed but a small number of gigs, mostly in support of The Magic Numbers, and having only just begun to be seen on TV, most notably with recent appearances on Jools Holland's Later and New Year Hootenanny.

Yet her soulful voice has already beguiled many of the nation's musical tastemakers and news of its beauty and of the strength of her songs is spreading by word of mouth even as you read these words. Radio One's Jo Whiley chose Duffy's title track and album taster `Rockferry' as her Single of the Week in late November, further adding to the momentum. Now, as the comparisons fly (Dusty Springfield has emerged as the favourite), it's time to discover her for yourself.

Duffy was born and spent her childhood years in the north Wales coastal community of Nefyn, a place too remote to be driven by style wars or opposing music factions (the nearest record counter was a bus ride away and only stocked the Top 40). The upbringing she describes is one in which everyone had to rub along together, making do and mending, accepting each other and their tastes without prejudice.

Having no CD collection of her own, her first real musical memory is of walking into the kitchen unannounced to find her mother and stepfather dancing to Rod Stewart. The first steps she took towards defining her own personal identity came when she borrowed one of her dad's VHS tapes of the `60s TV show `Ready, Steady, Go!'. "It had The Beatles, the Stones, the Walker Brothers, Sandie Shaw and Millie singing `My Boy Lollipop'. So sexy and exciting! I played it again and again until finally it disintegrated." Says former Suede guitarist and record producer Bernard Butler of this artlessness, "Duffy managed to grow up without any concept of what was cool or current, what she should or shouldn't like, how to behave or even how to sing. For her, coming to London at all was the stuff of fairytales."

"And to come here to write songs with some random bloke who'd been recommended to her, me? It meant taking two buses and then two trains and took all day. Then she'd do the same in reverse to get home, playing the music she'd just made to old ladies she encountered on the journey. It's hard for cynical music industry types to get their heads around just how far removed she was from our world, geographically and in every other way. But what you've got as a result is someone who acts and sings completely and unselfconsciously from the heart. That's a rare and magical thing."

Butler was introduced to Duffy by Rough Trade's Jeannette Lee who,in August 2004 and after hearing demos recorded in this or that mate's home, became the singer's mentor and manager. For Duffy, to have not just a friend but also point of both safety and reference in the strange new world she found herself in was crucial to her own musical development and sense of self.

"People keep saying to me, `You've made a great record' but I can't take that in because I didn't do it on my own. Jeannette and I made `Rockferry' together and she's been with me every step of the way, broadening my horizons, introducing me to people I can trust." Butler was just one of them: having written the glorious, chorus-free, utterly hypnotic `Rockferry' together at the beginning of the project, they then worked on a further three of the ten tracks on what is already being talked about as 2008's most important debut release. Jimmy Hogarth & Steve Booker are the other collaborators on this classic-in-waiting.

What can you expect to hear? The title track and album opener, as atmospheric, slow-building and idiosyncratic song as you could hope for, leads into a collection of original material that some might call retro in feel (those Dusty flavours, that girl group vibe) but which Duffy herself prefers to identify as classic. You'll find arrangements as sparsely effective as those against which Dionne Warwick told her Bacharach & David-wrought tales of heartbreak in the early 1960s. You'll find lush choruses and swooning hooks (as perfected by the late Miss Springfield and various distinguished others). But this is far from pastiche.

What you'll find instead is irrefutable evidence of a significant new talent, and one that has developed in splendid isolation, not in reaction to market forces or the input of focus groups and industry experts. Duffy is the real, unspoiled original deal. "People keep asking me where my voice comes from and the fact is I don't know," says the brightest new star of 2008. "Why are your eyes the colour they are? It's no answer at all but it's the only one I have."

Duffy Photos

Amazon.co.uk
Rockferry, the Welsh singer's lovingly constructed debut album, has already succeeded beyond expectations, and although Duffy may not quite be the ingénue portrayed by a clever press campaign (she nearly won a local television talent show a few years back while a single credited to Aimee Duffy is still available on iTunes) she is surely the most appealing of the current flood of young soul sirens. The astonishing title track, co-written by Bernard Butler, sounded like a lost transmission that had taken decades to get through as soon as it hit radio last year. But the gently rolling soul ballad "Stepping Stone", that strapping, inescapable monster hit "Mercy", the ice cool "Serious" (the one time she really does channel the spirit of Dusty Springfield) and the wistful, elegant "Warwick Avenue" are similarly effective. Suggestions by some that Rockferry is little more than sixties pastiche are churlish. Butler's previous work with David McAlmont (featured here as a backing singer) showed his skill at writing and arranging the dramatic, while her other collaborators such as Steve Booker and the team of Jimmy Hogarth and Eg White are hardly lightweights. But despite some wonderful orchestral settings, it's Duffy's terrific voice that makes this so satisfying, even overpowering Butler's exquisitely underplayed guitar work on "Rockferry" itself. Growling the blues on "Syrup & Honey" or belting it out over his lovingly arranged wall of sound on "Distant Dreamer", she sets the tone throughout, several of her songs dealing with escape, both physical and romantic. The sound of someone singing herself to stardom, Rockferry is at times genuinely amazing. --Steve Jelbert

People en Español
La música soul ha invadido Inglaterra en los últimos años, el país que nos ha entregado a algunas de las cantantes más interesantes del género como Amy Winehouse o Joss Stone. Hoy llega Duffy con Rockferry, un disco fantástico en el que la inglesa demuestra que una buena voz y personalidad son más que suficientes en el mundo de la música, sin necesidad de causar escándalos o contonear las caderas esta chica ha ido conquistando poco a poco los mercados de todo el mundo. En este álbum encontrará canciones como "Mercy" con un claro sonido sesentero, pero que se coló sin problemas en las listas de hits de la música pop. Además está "Warwick Avenue," una balada sencilla pero que le hará estremecer, también hay que destacar canciones como "Stepping Stone" o "Hanging On Too Long." La voz de Duffy es una de las más interesantes del mundo de la música, y aunque se le clasifica dentro del pop, no por esto su música es superflua o sólo para niñas de 15 años. Si le gusta la buena música déle una oportunidad a este disco. --Ernesto Sánchez (People en Español )

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Despite the huge marketing hype, it shows undoubted talent and 60's Soul atmospherics.
"Rockferry" is the most gorgeous evocation of classic pop-soul for years, and make no mistake, this is an album which wears its nostalgic credentials with no apology, only the new single "Mercy" betraying a hint of the 21st century about it.
"Warwick Avenue" lopes into action with a hint of The Temptations' "My Girl", "Stepping Stone'" s pensive intro seems to scream "Walk On By" and "Syrup And Honey" has more than a whiff of the Stax sound about it.
And then there are all the production nods towards Motown and Phil Spector - the tambourines set in cavernous reverb, the searing strings, the tremolo guitars.
All of this would be so much stylistic dressing-up were it not for the quality of the songs and the allure of Duffy's voice - a full-throated expressive wail which is never less than equal to the big arrangements.
The comparisons with Dusty Springfield are so wide of the mark.
Dusty was a much lustier performer.
Yes Duffy has the same look and works in the same pop landscape Dusty strode, but Duffy's voice is much more steeped in the tone of the poppier Motown songstrels.
If Duffy is the new anybody, she is the new Amy Winehouse, which makes it particularly ironic that the Welsh girl's missing forename is also Amy/Aimee.
For Duffy, like Winehouse, is utterly immersed in classic soul music, but where Winehouse now seems blurry and damaged, Duffy is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Duffy is the sweet to Winehouse's sour, the blonde to Amy's tattered brunette.
This is an album every bit as solid as "Back To Black", with tracks that sound like dusty soul standards.
The result is mighty good pop.

Back to Black
Always
19
The Very Best of Dusty Springfield
Dusty in Memphis

Wonderfully soaked in chic, retro soul.
This debut by the 23-year-old Welsh singer Aimee (Amy) Rockferry has been more than three years in the making.
She's been hailed as the sound of 2008 but really she's the sound of 1964, or thereabouts - Rockferry is all saucer-eyed, glossy soul-pop in the style of Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield and even Lulu.
The album showcases ten self-written tracks that certainly validate the hype, with support from industry veterans Bernard Butler (of Suede, her mentor), Jimmy Hogarth, Eg White and Steve Booker.
But Butler's sonic fingerprints are certainly all over her songs, and his presence gives "Rockferry" a maturity that's lacking from the slew of wannabe Amy Winehouses.
With a distinctive sound that at times seems to belong to another era, the album is a diligently produced record that looks set for a very sharp chart ascendancy. You would think that Duffy is one of those artists spawned from Amy Winehouse's transatlantic success.
With the current appetite for classic-sounding soul and old-school R&B established, and sold out shows this new Welsh talent looks set to clean up.
Most of its songs are slower and grander than the fizzy Number One single "Mercy": the best examples are the mellifluous "Warwick Avenue" and the lung-busting "Distant Dreamer".
But while her voice is technically unimpeachable, it isn't always very moving. It doesn't sound as if there's any heartbreak behind it - too pretty for pain, too sweet for sadness.
The comparisons between Duffy and Dusty Springfield - as well as more recent contemporaries Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone - are certainly justified, but on first listening the album at times feels like little more than a showcase for her vocal abilities, with tracks like "Syrup & Honey" lacking the soul and sorrow that made similar songs by Dusty so endearing and timeless.
Anyone who had a heart could hear the similarities between Duffy and the sound of Dusty Springfield - and even Cilla Black - copping American 60s soul. Her voice is a pleasure, raw and soulful.
And there have, of course, been other comp­arisons - Duffy has perhaps inevitably been likened to that other popular young soul singer of recentyears,theincreasingly troubled Amy Winehouse.
Duffy has dropped her first name Aimee in what appears to be an attempt to shy away from being likened to such a controversial artist. While they might be singing in the same genre, they're clearly not humming along to quite the same tune.
Winehouse's troubles are as much etched into her music as they are her body with her endless tattoos but while Duffy does indeed sing of heartbreak, there's a discernibly more optimistic tone to her tunes.
IndieLondon writes: "It's a moody, atmospheric effort built around Duffy's powerhouse vocal delivery and some genuinely thrilling background drum loops and strings".
"Rockferry is almost a very good album, but, for all the classic soul hallmarks, there's little insight into the actual soul of Duffy herself". John Lewis

Collection
Straight From The Heart The Very best Of
The Essential Cilla Black 1963-1978
Ultimate Collection
The Greatest Hits
Always
Back to Black

Girlfriend can SING!
I'm sure a lot of people are going out and buying Duffy's debut album, "Rockferry," after hearing the single "Mercy." I am one of those people, and when I listened to the CD in its entirety, I was blown away because "Mercy" is probably the weakest song on the whole album, which says a lot because "Mercy" is such an amazing song. However, the rest of the album is even better! Duffy's voice is out of this world. It's soulful, powerful, and absolutely beautiful. People who compare her to the likes of Nina Simone and Dusty Springfield are not exaggerating, but Duffy is really in a league of her own, as she brings a youthful panache to every song.

As for the album itself, I don't even know where to begin. All the songs are incredible. If I have to pick a favorite, it's probably the title track, "Rockferry," which is amazing. My jaw literally dropped when I listened to it for the first time. Other highlights include the wistful "Warwick Avenue," the soulful ballad "Stepping Stone," the blues infused "Syrup & Honey," and the inspiring "Distant Dreamer."

My one complaint about this CD is that it's too short...there are only 10 songs, but they are OUTSTANDING songs. Duffy has an amazing career ahead of her, and if you only buy one CD this year, make it "Rockferry."