NME Album Review: Duffy, ‘Endlessly’ (A&M)

Pastiche. Too knowing and it’s irritating, too slavish and it’s flat, but beware the ‘modern twist’. Witness the disco-tango-pop of ‘Keeping My Baby’, a low point on Duffy’s mostly decent second album. Produced with ?uestlove of and Albert Hammond Sr (yes, the Stroke’s dad), ‘Endlessly’ is best when it doesn’t try so hard. The hip-hop tinged ‘My Boy’ and the muscular soul pop of ‘Well, Well, Well’ are perfectly pitched, if at odds with the likes of ‘Too Hurt To Dance’, which perpetuates the Little Eva-sings-Soul Dusty shtick perfected on ‘Rockaway Beach’. That cat-in-a-swing-coat yowl will still be a divider for many, but it’s a snag of human individuality in a smooth, if mixed package.

5 out of 10