From Duran Duran to Robbie Williams via New Pop, folk-rock and cash-in Britpop, Duffy’s career is not short of its curious ups and downs. But strangest of all may be the fact that he made his best album in collaboration with avant-yob Nigel Kennedy. Relishing a prog sheen after the austerity of The Lilac Time, Duffy’s witty, pretty Revolver-songs (“Natalie” and “Totem” are featherlight knock-outs) are strung between Kennedy’s psycho-classical “Transitoires”, and the result is an affecting, beguiling and seamless suite of neuroses, new roses and elegant heartache.
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