Well Duffy has received much attention for her soulful voice and Rockferry showcases 10 self-written tracks that certainly validate the hype, with support from industry veterans Bernard Butler, Jimmy Hogarth, Eg White and Steve Booker.

With a distinctive soulful sound that harks back to the motown era of the sixities, Rockferry is a diligently produced record that looks set to remain in the album chart for a very long time – if Duffy's current place in the number one slot of the single chart is anything to go by.

Full of melacholic lyrics of a good woman downtrodden in the affairs of the heart. In song Rockferry she cries; "I'll leave my shadow to fall behind and I will not write to you, cos I'm not that kind/There's no sleep on the journey on the way from town/A bag of songs and a heavy heart won't break me down." And in track Warwick Avenue she goes all 'girl power' and summons the courage to leave a bad relationship; "I'm leaving you for the last time baby, you think you're loving but you don't love me."

The comparisons between Duffy and Dusty Springfield - as well as more recent contemporaries Amy Winehouse and recent brit winner Adele - are certainly justified, but on first listening the album at times feels like little more than a showcase for her vocal abilities, with tracks like Syrup & Honey lacking the soul and sorrow that makes Amy Winehouse's songs so compelling.

Rockferry is not an album that will blow listeners away immediately, but the songs have a depth that is enduring precisely because of their understatement.

In a world of showy and glam pop performances on and off stage, Duffy has done well to produce an album that tries to sideline catchy hooks in favour of music that will eventually add to the canon in a meaningful way.