Just got my hands on a promo of the album and about to give it a spin likee

And......? :o

The full album has leaked now...

 

Its absolutely amazing. My fave album this year by far. "Warwick Avenue" and "Stepping Stone" are just outstanding.

 

Just pm me if anyone wants a link... I shall be buying it when released though.

^ It's very mechanical. It has some obviously good songs on it, she has an excellent voice but the whole album feels very clinical and quite cold. There's no real personality in it at all to me. It has great production and FEELS expensive but the whole album comes across like someone else wrote it, no lyrical connectivity, no heart. It's a shame, I was hoping for more from her :(

Downloaded now =)

Can't find it anywhere. :( :lol: (Unless it's the Promo version everyone is on about?)

I just love Rockferry and Mercy, I was bobbing along to Mercy in English today, I hope nobody saw me :heehee:

Edited February 26, 200817 yr by davidobegiee

^ It's very mechanical. It has some obviously good songs on it, she has an excellent voice but the whole album feels very clinical and quite cold. There's no real personality in it at all to me. It has great production and FEELS expensive but the whole album comes across like someone else wrote it, no lyrical connectivity, no heart. It's a shame, I was hoping for more from her :(

 

I haven't heard the album yet but that's the kind of impression that I get when I hear her sing the songs live. I always get the impression that Bernard Butler has a lot more to do with the writing than Duffy does.

Got the album last night. Actually, I think it's really great. Some of the songs are quite samey but they're all top quality. Stepping Stone and Warwick Avenue are very good.

Her version of Ready On The Floor is lush :wub:

Brilliant debut album :wub:. Gonna buy it :)

Track 10 on the Album - 'Distant Dreamer' - sounds like

a 1960's Phil Spector Production. It is a beautiful Ballad,

which builds & builds, with a big Orchestral back ground.

 

Gavin Martin, ('Daily Mirror'), said it sounds like Mariah Carey

today, but it sounds Zero like Mariah! If anything, it sounds like Ronnie

Spector of The Ronettes - which is how more than one Critic has already

described Duffy's voice. I agree - her LOOK is like that of Dusty Springfield,

but her VOICE is closer to that of Ronnie Spector - not that, that is bad -

Ronnie had an excellent voice - maybe she still has!

 

Here is the LINK to 'Distant Dreamer' & its 'Wall Of Sound' Production:,

 

 

PLUS - Duffy won the Welsh version of the X Factor, & she recorded

some Tracks in Welsh. One is called 'Hedfan Angel', & it sounds a bit

like ABBA in the Music, & a Eurovision Ballad, in the style. I think it is very

beautiful.

 

The Link:,

 

 

 

Mercy would be an excellent Dusty-like #1 followup to one of the best songs ever, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me?. Feels that way to me anyhoo. :P

 

disagree... the follow up was her best ever recording imho... 'goin back'

disagree... the follow up was her best ever recording imho... 'goin back'

 

Spot on, I agree that was Dusty's best track:

 

Dusty Springfield - Goin' Back (1966) :wub:

 

 

 

 

For those of you unfamiliar with Phil Spector's Wall of Sound & Ronnie Spector's voice:

 

Ronettes - Be My Baby (1964)

Spot on, I agree that was Dusty's best track:

 

Dusty Springfield - Goin' Back (1966) :wub:

For those of you unfamiliar with Phil Spector's Wall of Sound & Ronnie Spector's voice:

 

Ronettes - Be My Baby (1964)

 

i reckon phil spectors greatest production was ike and tina turners version of 'river deep, mountain high'.. the 'wall of sound' at its best.

i reckon phil spectors greatest production was ike and tina turners version of 'river deep, mountain high'.. the 'wall of sound' at its best.

 

I disagree.

 

One thing, I am totally onside with Ike Turner is that he ruined a Creedence Clearwater Revival esque track into something monstrous with the ridiculous OTT string arrangement & Wall of Sound.

 

Here is how it should sound:

 

Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High

 

Never mind being on trial for murder. He should have gone on trial for what he did to ruin the intimate heartfelt hymn "Long & Winding Road" that Paul McCartney wrote in memory of his mother, Mary recorded by the Beatles and he turned it into a proto-Westlife track.

 

This is how it sounded before Phil Spector ruined it:

 

The Beatles - The Long & Winding Road (1969 version)

 

 

Not unlike Stock Aitken & Waterman 1980s productions & Motown's Funk Brothers core of musicians who played on all the 1960s Motown tracks, Phil Spector's earliest work was by far his best. Listen to the Teddy Bears To Know Him Is To Love Him, or his work with the Girl Groups The Crystals, The Ronettes & Darlene Love especially on the seminal Christmas album "A Christmas Gift for You".

 

But by the time he was producing the Righteous Brothers, Beach Boys & Ike & Tina Turner his productions and string arrangements were becoming crude and over intrusive to the detriment of the songs in question due to his increasing dependents on narcotics and excessive egotistic & erratic behaviour. And don't get me started on what he did to ruin the Let It Be album........

 

I disagree.

 

One thing, I am totally onside with Ike Turner is that he ruined a Creedence Clearwater Revival esque track into something monstrous with the ridiculous OTT string arrangement & Wall of Sound.

 

Here is how it should sound:

 

Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High

 

Never mind being on trial for murder. He should have gone on trial for what he did to ruin the intimate heartfelt hymn "Long & Winding Road" that Paul McCartney wrote in memory of his mother, Mary recorded by the Beatles and he turned it into a proto-Westlife track.

 

This is how it sounded before Phil Spector ruined it:

 

The Beatles - The Long & Winding Road (1969 version)

Not unlike Stock Aitken & Waterman 1980s productions & Motown's Funk Brothers core of musicians who played on all the 1960s Motown tracks, Phil Spector's earliest work was by far his best. Listen to the Teddy Bears To Know Him Is To Love Him, or his work with the Girl Groups The Crystals, The Ronettes & Darlene Love especially on the seminal Christmas album "A Christmas Gift for You".

 

But by the time he was producing the Righteous Brothers, Beach Boys & Ike & Tina Turner his productions and string arrangements were becoming crude and over intrusive to the detriment of the songs in question due to his increasing dependents on narcotics and excessive egotistic & erratic behaviour. And don't get me started on what he did to ruin the Let It Be album........

 

oh i wont defend his ruining any beatle track...

 

but i loved his ott production on 'river deep, mountain high'.. which imho was the turners best moment too.

I love Spector's work with the Crystals, Ronettes, Ike & Tina

Turner, & the Righteous Brothers.

 

I know that 'River Deep Mountain High' is 'OTT', but that is why

I think it is a fantastic record.

 

Incidently, it is not even Spector's most 'OTT' Song with Ike &

Tina - 'I'll Never Need More Than This' (1966), is even bigger as a

Production than 'River Deep Mountain High'. It is the biggest Production

that I have ever heard - and I like it even more than 'RDMH'.

 

I am not a huge Beatles Fan, so I cannot say if Spector 'ruined' the

'Let it Be' Album. Whatever the case, The Beatles recorded some USA

'Girl Group' Songs, in their early Career - so it was turning full circle

when a Producer of such Records ended up working on a Beatles Album.

Edited March 1, 200817 yr by zeus555

I know that 'River Deep Mountain High' is 'OTT', but that is why

I think it is a fantastic record.

 

.

 

precisely!!! besides i was 9 when it was out and where else could a 9 year old hear LOUD music?... its before rock was created!!! :lol:

From The Times March 1, 2008

Duffy: Rockferry

Review: Bob Stanley (Yes it is THE Bob Stanley of St Etienne fame)

***

 

Behind the blonde bangs, you get the feeling there might have been more than the odd moment of self-doubt for Duffy. You can almost see the troubled spirit of Dusty on one shoulder, the head of Universal Records on the other. Rockferry, her debut album, is being sold to us as an issue, an important statement made by an important new voice. And there's no hype, they say: Duffy is a natural-born star.

 

Pop politics aside for now, lead single Mercy is a slight but darned catchy number, a classic radio hit, Rehab redux with the “no, no, no” hook replaced by “yeah, yeah, yeah”.

 

The title track is better, a decidedly British take on the New York “big city soul” sound pioneered by Burt Bacharach and Teddy Randazzo. Distant Dreamer is the most affecting vocal performance, taking Roy Orbison's bolero-ballad tension and adding a Spector-ised wall of saxes. It uses the same chord progression that R Kelly has built an empire around. Heard it all before? Many music lovers probably haven't - the most discernible reference on these songs is at least 30 years old.

 

But nothing is more likely to cause a gag reflex than overloud claims of authenticity; that the “hype” is that there is no hype - it makes it impossible to take Rockferry on its own merits. So loud has been the marketing clamour that we are obliged to treat it as a major release, a third album following two platinum sellers.

 

So instead of being drawn to its high points, we note how many of its references are facile, how Duffy and her team of helpers should be digging a little deeper than My Girl (Warwick Avenue) and I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Hanging on Too Long) for samples. We hear how Rockferry treads a fine line, often crossing from soulful atmospherics (Stepping Stone) into Starbucks cosiness (Serious, Delayed Devotion), and on these occasions we realise it sounds no better or worse than a Gabrielle album.

 

No one insisted “instant classic!” when the sensuous Back to Black insinuated itself into the national, then international, consciousness. It was effortless. You can hear the perspiration behind Rockferry. And, ultimately, that's a turn-off.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Rockferry

NME Review

Feb 29, 2008

 

On the ocean-eyed, luscious-lipped, porcelain-cheeked, paper-white face of it, Welsh songstress Duffy is perfect. To start with, her story’s sweet. Now 23, she grew up in remote north Wales, listening to her mother’s modest record collection, smoking in garden sheds and telling ghost stories. Through that inherited, meagre library – and the blessing of tonsils the size of Cadillac hub-caps – she taught herself to sing. By 19, she was discovered by 60Ft Dolls’ Richard Parfitt, who brought her to the attention of Jeanette Lee (once of PiL) at Rough Trade, who hooked her up with Bernard Butler (Suede), Steve Booker and Jimmy Hogarth, who ‘helped’ write this album. It’s a lovely tale, featuring a vulnerable star with a cute nose. However, as everyone from Let’s Wrestle to Girls Aloud will tell you: actually, ‘perfect’ blows.

 

We realised this last December, as a pair of hollow pupils stared through a camera lens and into the homes of a million Chardonnay drinkers. The occasion was Duffy duetting with Eddie Floyd, as Sir Paul McCartney watched, on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. Disturbingly, she didn’t look surprised to be there. She didn’t look delighted. In fact, she looked like a science museum exhibit with a robotic grin; no less a product than Will Young or a Dairylea Dunker.

 

Y’see there’s not much difference between Duffy and Leona Lewis. The tone of ‘Rockferry’ is that of an X Factor covers record: an LP for people who think leaving the washing-up until the morning is living dangerously. Duffy’s debut is hoovered of personality, principally, because on this evidence, she hasn’t got any. Oh but she’s got a spectacular voice they all say – and it’s true, her staccato whisper glides and climbs like Diana Ross riding a pony made of caramel – but it still sounds like she lent her pipes to someone else’s record.

 

‘Rockferry’ does have its merits: it’s over in the time it takes for three school runs and it certainly sounds expensive (we presume it was recorded in a platinum-plated studio with caviar chandeliers). For the most part, though, it’s Duffy merely parroting her carefully selected peers. She does it proficiently: for ‘Rockferry’, see Dusty Springfield. On ‘Warwick Avenue’ it’s Mary J Blige. The single ‘Mercy’, with its Austin Powers’ organ? Why, Aretha Franklin. You get the idea.

 

It’s a record without a blemish, a thoughtful tribute timeline to the great female singers of the past. Plump, well-formed like a Christmas turkey primed for slaughter, but tellingly, without any glimpse of Duffy’s real soul, no hint of her heart. So where do you go from perfect? Honestly, there’s no route out.

 

Greg Cochrane

4 out of 10

 

 

Album: Duffy, Rockferry (A&M)

(Rated 3/ 5 )

Independent.co.uk Reviewed by Andy Gill

Friday, 29 February 2008

 

North Wales siren Duffy is the latest of a formidable crop of female singer-songwriters to be overloaded with the desperate expectations of an industry in decline, and the most directly comparable, in terms of sound and style, to the all-conquering Amy Winehouse. Duffy's look on Rockferry is oh-so-Sixties, and her sound is no less retro – but rather than the hopeful comparisons with Dusty Springfield that any singer would struggle to fulfil, her strident tones recall more youthful forerunners, notably the evergreen Lulu and pre-Beatles pop princess Helen Shapiro. Not a bad place to be coming from, certainly; but then, unlike Amy, there doesn't seem to be anything "bad" about Duffy at all, which may be the Achilles heel of this impressive debut.

 

The album opens with the melodramatic piano chords of the title track, joined by a few lonely shakes of tambourine before strings and twangy guitar combine to usher in a noirish ambience of small-town doubt and reproach. "There's no seat for the journey away from town," sings Duffy, adding, "A bag of songs and a heavy heart won't get me down." But isn't that the point of soul music – to express that depression, and thereby expunge it? Too often on Rockferry, Duffy doesn't sound like she's inhabiting these songs she's co-written so much as adapting to them, using an adopted language whose subtleties she has yet to learn.

 

It's one thing to sprinkle the period references around – the hook melody of "Warwick Avenue" that short-circuits one's memory back to "My Girl"; the gentle, scudding Motown groove to "Delayed Devotion" that could have come from a Velvelettes or Marvelettes cut; the elegant Bacharach style of "Stepping Stone" – but it's another thing entirely to transcend clichés and cut listeners to the quick.

 

"Rockferry" and the follow-up single "Mercy" are the tracks that stand out as something special, the latter's uptempo organ funk providing the album's one truly memorable groove. Elsewhere, she's less persuasive. Ultimately, it's a matter of life and death, of living the little deaths in these songs, and that's what stops Rockferry from delivering on the extravagant claims made for Duffy. Winehouse can easily surmount the retro arrangements of her songs because she so obviously lives them – she told us she was trouble, what did we expect? – but it's much harder for the blander Duffy to escape the soul stylings and Spectorisms of Rockferry. Which wouldn't be a problem at all, had not our interest been so excessively piqued.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Duffy, Rockferry

(A&M)

***

Maddy Costa

Friday February 29, 2008

The Guardian

 

If only Duffy had been dubbed the new Norah Jones, rather than the new Amy Winehouse, then her debut album might have succeeded not only in topping the charts (which is inevitable), but in surpassing expectations. Duffy's voice is richer in texture than Jones's, her melodies are more memorable, and the retro soul-pop arrangements of her three producers are less insipid. Like Jones, however, Duffy is crucially lacking in personality. She exudes a soft, innocent, waif-next-door loveliness that renders every song on Rockferry anodyne. It's telling that many of her lyrics pathetically exhort lovers to pay her more attention, but when she tries to be assertive or seductive, she can't pull it off. And in the wrong hands - namely, producer Bernard Butler's - her sweetness grows as sickly as cheap milk chocolate. The closing track, Distant Dreamer, is awful, a nauseating gush of saxophone-sprinkled sentimentality destined to soundtrack countless hen-party group hugs. That aside, there's nothing dislikable about Rockferry - but nothing that dazzles, either.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Ouch!

If all these mediocre reviews are true then her album is worse than Adele's debut. :o