Like Lloyd Cole, Stephen Duffy has been stripped of his ’80s hopes of pop success, and now pursues his English visions at a hand-crafted level. This is folk music for the far-flung community whose values were forged by ’80s pop culture, picking through the wreckage of the late 20th century, from Blood On The Tracks to the Berlin Wall. Subtly lush, echoing production brings Sun Studios into the equation. “Bank Holiday Monday”, meanwhile, is a small classic of longing for England and escape from it. Too media-saturated to cut to the soul, Duffy has still carved himself a resonant niche.
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