Rockferry

The recent surge of Europeans retrofitting and upgrading 1960s soul rolls on in swirling style with this debut from Duffy, a Welsh singer/songwriter from the school of jazzy chanteuses who are here to maximize the international-but-not-too-international-for-Starbucks style, but sound quite lovely doing it anyway. "Rockferry" hits the major notes: "Warwick Avenue" is a string-smooched jazz number, the title cut is a towering wall of piano-powered sound with moody lyrics, and first single "Mercy" is about as summery as summery gets. Like all such records, "Rockferry" splits its time between paying tribute to its source material and knocking it off, but its principal's vocals, and generally pleasing wall-of-sound treatment, make it a good move anyway. —Jeff Vrabel