Not everybody loves Duffy’s voice, but I find it lovely – soul with a hint of helium. This is of the highlights from her first album. She recreated a certain moment of sixties-ness – motown torch songs – with exactitude. She’s just put out a second record, and I’ve just played it. The first thing I notice is it’s a lot shorter. Then I think about, what are the expectations for a second Duffy album? Do we want more and more of the same, or do we want her to stretch out a bit? She does a little of both. The new one is not so much a time-capsule – it has beats, for one thing. It’s pretty good, but not as good. Because, really, anyone can do a song with beats, and plenty of people do, better than Duffy does. She has made a specific niche for herself, and she fares best when she’s doing what she does best, which is filling her niche. But on the other hand, it would be boring if she just made another album exactly like the first one, so cheers to her making some small change. I think it would be cool if she did some covers, but not of anything from the sixties, and not those tired old standards either. It would be cool if she did covers of famous contemporary songs in an oldies style.
Lady Garfunkel's Song of the Day 