The lush country-folk lull of Keep Going might spell out little of Stephen Duffy's personal history, but keen observers will recognise this man has made a career out of playing second fiddle, of skirting the big time by the slimmest of margins. As a founding member of Duran Duran--although he'd left way before the group hit the big-time--and a musical cohort of Blur's Alex James during the heady days of Britpop, Duffy's musical talents have often been obscured by brighter stars. But as the leader of the Lilac Time, he's truly king of his own castle. Duffy has intermittently revived this project a number of times to indulge his passion for a rustic, acoustic sound that borrows equally from English folk and Americana. Here, his voice sounds warm and emotional, augmented by harmonica, banjo, pedal steel and female voices rising in clear harmony. He specialises in the hushed, fraught love song. "I was down/ On the floor/ Why get up/ Just to take more?" goes the gentle, Pernice Brothers-style lover's lament "I Wasn't Scared of Flying". But a bit of pace suits him, too: "So Far Away" holds a wistful roll-call of 20th-century icons, Duffy reeling off names--Johnny Rotten, Alan Ginsberg, Chairman Mao--over delicate flourishes of Nick Drake-style fingerpicking. --Louis Pattison
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