SOUL

Duffy, "Rockferry" (Mercury) 10 tracks.

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Grade: Solid, soulful debut

Duffy's debut album could slip in between Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield on a collector's shelf, but the 23-year-old pop-soul ingenue says she developed her sound without hearing either artist.

Still, the singer-songwriter, who grew up in a remote Welsh village where top-40 music ruled, embodies the style and substance of a classic '60s soul diva.

She co-wrote each of the ten tracks on "Rockferry," an album all about old-fashioned heartbreak. On the title track, Duffy has "a bag of songs and a heavy heart." She tells a lover they're finished in the sparsely arranged "Warwick Avenue," bemoans his lack of attention in "Hanging On Too Long" and tries to keep herself from the arms of a cheater in "Stepping Stone."

She knows she's a fool in love and pleads for compassion on the super-catchy single, "Mercy." Duffy taps into her inner Aretha Franklin on the electro-tinged tune, begging for mercy over a bouncy chorus of yeah, yeah, yeahs.

While none of the album's other songs are as punchy or uptempo and this toe-tapping track, Duffy delivers a solid, soulful debut with the same retro appeal and promise Amy Winehouse generated with 2006's "Back to Black."

"Rockferry" only lags on its final tune — ironically the album's most positive. A soaring anthem about life's possibilities laid over an orchestral backdrop, "Distant Dreamer" sounds like the theme song for a cheesy children's film.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: A lone guitar provides the melody and Duffy lets loose with a lovesick wail as she implores her baby to "spend your time on me" in the soulful and spare "Syrup & Honey."

— Sandy Cohen, Associated Press