All our MP3 downloads are fully compatible with iPods, iPhones, Android devices and other popular digital music players. Once you've made your purchase, your music will be automatically added to your iTunes or Windows Media Player library via our downloader app. Try it out for nothing with our selection of free tracks or learn more. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
|
Product Description
Review
Everything about it is knowingly, lovingly retro. From the album cover, on which she looks like a sugary French Yé-Yé chanteuse, to the short running time and roughly 50/50 balance of ballads and upbeat poppers, this could be a lost curio from 1963 were it not for some tell-tale signs of modernity.
But in striving for period legitimacy, Duffy and her co-writer/producer Albert Hammond (whose many hits include The Air That I Breathe for The Hollies and his own The Free Electric Band) are too often confined by their influences: much of their material sounds authentic but insubstantial.
In its favour, the album boasts rich, crisp production values, immediately apparent on opener My Boy, one of the few songs to sound as though it emerged from the 21st century. And yet despite its squelching synths it’s essentially an update of the classic girl group sound, a template which dominates throughout the album.
Bathed in strings, the heartache ballads, Too Hurt to Dance and Don’t Forget Me, are most obviously indebted to the pre-Beatles era. Pleasingly derivative, they showcase Duffy’s distinctive voice to the best of its abilities. On the more strident material, however, her mannered Ronnie Spector-isms tend to grate: witness the mechanically catchy single, Well, Well, Well, featuring the rhythm section from The Roots.
Branching out from her 1960s haven into the unexplored futuristic mania of the 1970s, Keeping My Baby is the sort of coquettish ersatz disco latterly peddled by Kylie Minogue. Replete with vinyl crackle, the title-track is a passable variation on a soul-pop ballad written countless times before, while the simple circular melody of banally philosophical closing track, Hard for the Heart, unconsciously borrows from Coldplay’s The Scientist.
Ironically, the best song is the most throwaway. A catchy bubblegum skank featuring kitschy pizzicato strings, Girl is preferable to Duffy and Hammond’s more earnest exercises in pastiche.
Though not without its charms, Endlessly is too slight and uneven to impress unconditionally. On paper, it makes sense to align Duffy with a craftsman of Hammond’s calibre: after all, she is fundamentally a purveyor of commercial pop. But their collaboration reaps only minor rewards.
--Paul Whitelaw
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Product Description
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing second album,
By Nick Dangerous (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Endlessly (Audio CD)
Rockferry was a great Soul/Pop record. Duffy's good girl image combined with the albums heartfelt tracks made for the perfect companion piece to the darkness of Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black'. Unfortunately second effort Endlessly is a bit of a misfire. There are no standout tracks like 'Warwick Avenue' or 'Mercy' and the lyrics are one dimensional & overly syrupy throughout. Listening to the album it feels like the producers didn't really know what sound they were going for. On 'Well, Well, Well' (the first and only single) the music has more of a dance feel but it doesn't quite work.Overall perhaps the biggest disappointment is that Duffy never sings at full power as she did on Rockferry tracks such as 'Serious'. Her unique voice was the core of what made that album so appealing but on Endlessly she does not display the same range. A few of the songs have their own subtle charm such as the Kylie Minogue esque 'Lovestruck' and string accompanied 'Breath Away' (which is quite good) but overall the album is forgettable and unlikely to have you hitting the repeat button. One for completists only.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Endlessly, Duffy - Middling to good second album from Duffy,,
By
This review is from: Endlessly (Audio CD)
It seems to have been an almost endless wait since Duffy's debut, the sublime `Rockferry', for her follow up album. Finally, here it is. But just what is it exactly?With an original sound that reminded one of Lulu or Dusty Springfield in their prime, Duffy has tried to develop and alter her style a little bit. For me the slightly new direction doesn't work too well. She has moved away from the Phil Spectorish soul ballad backings that suited and framed her voice to a more modern sounding production that she almost has to fight against to make an impact. It doesn't quite suit her voice and does not provide as enjoyable listening experience as Rockferry. The best track on the album for me is `Don't Foresake Me', which follows the earlier style. There are good points here though - Duffy's vocal delivery is disitinctive and excellent, and there is some very good songwriting. It is just let down a bit by the choice of backing and production. All in all the tracks sound a bit bland and samey, to my ears there are no real standout star tracks. They are all ok, and listenable, but no more than that really. With a bit more focus and a sympathetic production this could have been great, but not an album I will be returning to that often I think. In all three stars. It's not terrible, but it doesn't really shine for me.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Weak songs and dated production,
By
This review is from: Endlessly (Audio CD)
What went wrong? On her first album Duffy delivered a strong set of songs and showed an ability to sing soul with an interesting and distinctive voice. She appeared to be a real talent with a promising career ahead of her. This album is a real disappointment and she has been badly let down by her writers and producer. The style has moved towards boppy, dated, middle of the road pop that is supposed to appeal to who? The songs are weak and forgettable, and her voice appears to have gone up a register and has lost nearly all of its interest and soul. Some of the songs are truly awful; My Boy, Lovestruck and Girl for example bop along plastically like rejects from a Steps album, and Duffy sounds like she has been inhaling helium. The slower ballads are better but only relative to the rest of the album and never reach the standard of her debut. I really hope that her career survives this disaster and she gets another chance with a better backroom team.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
