Why Won’t You Release Me?

Duffy “Mercy” – Things to listen for:

1. Duffy’s instruction to “hit the beat and take it to the verse now” only five seconds into the song. I like to think that without her direction, the keyboard player would have vamped on that part indefinitely, and the rest of the band would have just sorta stood around with slack jaws.

2. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” repeated in the general direction of Amy Winehouse, with a bit of a knowing smirk.

3. That sure sounds like a farfisa organ on the chorus! Farfisa is always welcome, but it sounds particularly good in contrast with the colder, more modern rhythmic keyboard part from the start of the song.

4. A bit of giggling at the 1:27 mark — it’s either a direct response to the notion that someone would be so foolish to have someone on the side whilst dating Duffy, or some girl just being a bit silly in the studio.

5. 1:35 mark — “Yes, I do!” You have me, Duffy. I’m sold. This is one of those magic moments that make a song sound real and alive, like a person that you could know and love.

6. Suddenly she’s overlapping: A quiet, coy quasi-rap laid over the top of her most insistent vocal for maximum contrast. It comes up to the edge of not quite working, but somehow she pulls it off. If it was possible to drop a few dollars into the tip jar of whoever it was that mixed this track, I’d totally do it.

7. Oh, hey, by the way, there’s some strings in this thing. Better yet, they sound like a strings setting on a keyboard, which actually suits the balance of warm and cool textures than something that came across more “live.”

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