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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0602517629769
Label: Mercury
Manufacturer: Mercury
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Mercury
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Studio: Mercury
Sales Rank: 17
MPN: 001082202
Disc 1:- Rockferry
- Warwick Avenue
- Serious
- Stepping Stone
- Syrup & Honey
- Hanging On Too Long
- Mercy
- Delayed Devotion
- Scared
- Distant Dreamer
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Editorial Review:
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  )
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Yes, very nice voice. Nice melodies/sound and a good quality recording. The problem in my opinion is the lyrics extremely simplistic. I have a problem with lyrics which have simplistic rhymes and speak in narrative, with no poetic or interpretive aspects. I can enjoy the music as background if I don't listen to the words - which for me is not easy. With better writing I think she could be huge (or at least more popular than she is)
Rating:  -
This is really a terrific CD. A little reminiscent of Dusty Springfield, but with her own take, the music just draws you in. The title cut is so beautiful, and Mercy just makes you dance. I highly recommend it.
Rating:  -
A bit disappointed. After the rave reviews in TIME and other sources, and having Winehouse's latest CD as a benchmark, I myself not a big CD buyer anymore risked the purchase only to be disappointed in the end. She can sing, but does not have the spunk or sass of Winehouse nor her soul. Duffy however makes a very picturesque retro album cover. The kind of face you wish Winehouse would have.
JP
Rating: -
I like to have a CD collection, so I purchase the original CDs. I like Duffy's music but the CD sounds scratched every where i play it even though the CD doesn't look scratched.
Rating: -
I heard track 7, "Mercy" on a recent Smallville so I purchased it for that reason. Although the other tracks are okay, it is not one of my favorites. Just not my taste but I am certain that this type of music appeals to many.
ja
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Cunard Line has announced that its new
85,000-ton cruise ship, which is scheduled to enter service in 2008, will be
named Queen Victoria. Based in Southampton, England, the Cunard Queen Victoria will be
the second largest Cunard Queen ever built. Together with the current flagship,
Queen Elizabeth 2, and Queen Mary 2, the biggest passenger liner ever, the
Cunard fleet will include three Queens for the first time – truly the most
famous ocean liners in the world.
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Queen Victoria will enter service in the company’s 165th anniversary and will
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passenger decks will be served by exterior glass-walled lifts. Like QE2 and QM2,
the liner will have a Queens Grill, offering single-seating gourmet dining.
There will also be a unique Colonial Restaurant on Deck 11 with spectacular
panoramic views.
Queen Victoria cruises will offer a wide range of
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The on-board menus, entertainment and lecture program will be geared to British
tastes and the currency will be sterling. Queen Victoria will fly the red
ensign; she will have the name of her home port, Southampton, on her stern, and
she will have a British Captain and Officers.
In design terms the cruise Cunard Queen Victoria will have an undeniably British feel with two British design
teams being responsible for the interior of the Cunard Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria is being built at Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera, near
Venice, with her keel laid on July 12, 2003. One of the most technically
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ordered as the fifth in a series of five 'Vista' class ships for sister company
Holland America, the contact was signed over to Cunard before the keel was laid
and Holland America then ordered a further ship for delivery in 2006.
Enjoy a Cruise on Queen Victoria. The
lead ship in the series, Zuiderdam, entered service in December 2002.
No cruise schedules have yet been
announced. Her float out is scheduled for May 2007, prior to
her delivery in March 2008.She is scheduled to enter service in April 2008. |
