The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #148

#148: "Mercy" (2008) - Duffy

The British Invasion starts today*, folks, and Welsh singer Duffy leads the way with this neo-soul/disco smash. It's not all new, though: the structure hails from sixties' girl-group singles, the music's staightened-out and glossed-up reggaeton, that synth line seems mighty similar to Danny Red's "Rolling Stone Girl," and the bass riff takes the same from "Stand by Me" and speeds it up. What's new, then? Duffy's retro vocal style, that's what.

Give this song to most any current (American)** female pop singer, and you'll hear--for better or for worse--singing that doesn't vary greatly in dynamics from verse to chorus. Give this song to Duffy, and she eases back during the verses, cutting down on her wailing and pinching her lines, all of which leave plenty of space for the lyrics to connect and the beat to hit and the background vocals to accentuate the rhythm. The chorus then arrives, and she still holds back, and doesn't finally let loose until the end of it. And when she finally does release her passion, it has impact.

Duffy's vocals are precise (even if her voice isn't crystal clear), and her techniques intelligent, and though I'm sure all her talent comes naturally, it seems to hew from the Atlantic, Stax/Volt, and Phil Spector schools of singing, where in-verse dynamics and drama are brought about through tension and release. Singers like Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples and Darlene Love were experts at this type of soul singing*** (which derived from a mixture of gospel's call-and-response and Tin Pan Alley-style pop/jazz effeciency), and Duffy's well on her way. She even adds her own stylization to the mix by adding that quick-little rap near the end of the song, the one that runs right underneath the mix, as it's more about riding the rhythm than it is about enunciating the lyrics. In this Duffy shows her soul smarts, as she does by waiting until the very last moment to cry for mercy, just when she--and the song--really need it. The rest is form metting function, the vocal and the instrumental matching the lyric...paradoxically so, though, as when Duffy finally cries out for release is just when we never want to let her go.



NOTES

*Actually, on this chart, the British Invasion began way back with Teddy Thompson at number 319, but who's counting?****

**British too, in a way, for even the fabulous Amy Winehouse doesn't have the sense of vocal dynamics that Duffy does.

***Motown's female singing style was two-fold: one was similar to this Atlantic/Stax/Volt/Spector model, but the Motown singers who followed this model usually didn't have the vocal chops to belt it out; the second was similar to most of today's styles, in which Motown let its strongest singers (like Martha Reeves) shout their lungs out on every line.

****Apparently, I am.