Rockferry : Duffy : Review : Rolling Stone

Like fellow U.K. chart-topper Leona Lewis, Welsh newcomer Aimee Duffy once worked as a waitress and competed on an American Idol-like show. But after a dalliance with pop, she settled on a sound that better suits her crackly vocals: Sixties-style soul. Duffy's Motown- and Dusty Springfield-indebted debut swings with a lounge-y charm, whether she's fighting her devotion to an unfaithful lover on "Hanging on Too Long" or dreaming of taking a midnight train (to a town near Liverpool, not Georgia) with escalating passion on the title track. With assistance from former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, who doodles Beatlesque solos and provides evocative retro production, Duffy makes a case for herself as Amy Winehouse's better-behaved sister. Where Winehouse begged "No, no, no" on her breakout single, "Rehab," Duffy counters with "Yeah, yeah, yeah" alongside keening strings on the organ-pumping track "Mercy." Rather than crooning about being committed, she sounds like she's being released.