I’m really not sure what to make of Duffy.
I bought her debut album, Rockferry, earlier this year and I’m very impressed by it. It’s a cross between Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse, borrowing the best bits from each. She’s not boring like Jones, but she’s not a gutter junkie like Winehouse… she’s just an English lass with a great soulful voice who writes songs that put a modern twist on 60s classics. She seemed to be the real deal.
But then I saw her on Saturday Night Live a few weeks back and she seemed like an entirely different person. She was tricked out like a blow-up doll and could barely sing above the live music. It was a truly horrible performance that had me thinking maybe she is heading down the Winehouse path.
And that would be a real shame, because she’s clearly a talent. And check out this video for ‘Warwick Avenue.’ She pulls a Sinead O’Connor, performing the whole song in teary close-up, and displays some acting chops that might catch the attention of Hollywood. She even delivers the patented Denzel Washington single tear technique, and that’s complicated business.
I hope the SNL fiasco was a product of bad Mexican food or something and she’ll live up to her potential in the long haul. But even if she doesn’t, she’s made her mark with Rockferry and that’s more than I can say for a lot of artists.
Meet Me In Montauk 
I don’t know that an artist should be judged for one mediocre live performance, but such a performance does likely demonstrate the relative strenghts (or, in this case, weaknesses) of that artist. All camera-ready and crying on cue, perhaps Duffy is simply meant for the editing room 🙂 Her manager should have steered her clear of SNL. I like this song; my first exposure was a free song from Starbucks… which I enjoyed enough but didn’t compel me to download the entire album. This song makes me more likely to do so.
Meanwhile, as the video plays above, I’ve not so sure about these acting chops. She’s a beautfiul woman, so there’s no harm sticking a camera in her face for the length of a song, but I wouldn’t favorably compare that performance to Sinead O’Connor’s, which was absolutely stunning and ground-breaking at the time. Anyway, she should probably avoid the stage and Hollywood and stay in a recording studio 🙂
Okay first James taylor, and now Norah Jones is boring? What is wrong with you, man!
Like this song, and definitely see the Winehouse comparison– a bit of Winehouse light I suppose. Nice stuff.
When did Denzel have a single tear? Good song.
In the whipping scene in Glory.
Is that the only time? What about Philadelphia? Or Hurricane? I feel as though I’ve seen him do the tear in several films, no?
He also did it in Courage Under Fire and probably in others as well. The Glory tear is the one I always think of, though.