Endlessly＜Barnes & Noble限定盤＞

Rolling Stone - "[S]he opens with 'My Boy,' which gets funky oomph from guest backup band the Roots." Uncut (p.84) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Cool and clever without being contrived, this is sharp, commercially astute pop music that ebbs and flows to the rhythm of a very human pulse." Paste (magazine) - "The arrangements are gorgeous, especially the Brill Building soundalike 'Too Hurt to Dance,' and they wind up being the best part about ENDLESSLY."

Deftly turning from Dusty Springfield-like ingenue to Kylie Minogue-ish diva in the span of one album, Duffy has produced an album, Endlessly, that is nearly everything its predecessor was not: where Rockferry was by turns melancholy and majestic, Endlessly is direct and forceful. Where the songs on Rockferry portrayed a young neo-soul singer too wounded to even look at the camera, Endlessly comes blasting out from the possessive opener, "My Boy," and fires several more aggressive shots across the bow of anyone who thought her too subdued on Rockferry (led by the single "Well Well Well"). Co-producer and co-songwriter Albert Hammond (father to the Strokes' guitarist and a singer/songwriter in his own right) coats the album in strings, but also allows plenty of clubby productions and up-front beats (some provided by the Roots' stickman Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson) to give this album a fine sheen of pop gloss (where Rockferry was akin to the throwback balladry of Scott Walker). Often, the collaboration hits a sweet spot, as on "Too Hurt to Dance," which is laden with Brill Building strings, but sounds up to the minute as well. The rare moments where she holds back her vocals, like album highlight "Don't Forsake Me," actually come off truest and most nakedly emotional. ~ John Bush