Paolo Nutini has been sitting under a strange kind of sun lately.
2009's Sunny Side Up album may have won him a Brit Awards nomination, but I think Nutini fans may be a little disappointed by the songs that make it up. If you were expecting something of the same calibre as the single Pencil Full of Lead, you're in for a surprise- aside from the misleadingly upbeat 10/10 which heads up the twelve-track CD, the album is mostly populated by reflective, ambiguous, mellow songs. Some are even a bit slushy. Maybe this was the reason for the eggs in the title.
A couple of years ago my mum and sister saw dear Paolo at Glastonbury singing I Wanna Be Like You to a toy orangutan, drunk as a lord. But here Nutini's certainly sounding more mature and sober- his vocals deepen one minute and croon in falsetto the next, his guitar swaps between chugging through a country chord sequence and humming melodiously under borderline-religious lyrics. The track Coming Up Easy speaks of being purified by rain and 'created in love', while a later track is entitled simply Chamber Music, and the final track, Keep Rolling, could easily be sung my a church choir with its harmonious backing vocals and organ-like drone.
Maybe he has grown up since 2006's These Streets, from which the incredibly sexy Loving You and New Shoes are a far cry from Simple Things and Worried Man. These last two, in fact, remind me far more of another singer-songwriter with a partiality to booze- the walking bass and lyrics made me think of Johnny Cash, particularly the line- 'help him Jesus, help him to walk along the line/because he thinks he's getting old before his time'.
I hope the Worried Man Nutini's lamenting isn't himself. But maybe with worry comes maturity, as seen in lyrics and the album literature- in search of revealing sleevenotes I found a drawing on the very first page entitled 'Paolo and Delilah in Daddy's studio'. Has the singer-songwriter settled down with his songs and thoughts of kids? Perhaps. I'd be interested to see him live now.
Though maybe the orangutan would be kept backstage
2009's Sunny Side Up album may have won him a Brit Awards nomination, but I think Nutini fans may be a little disappointed by the songs that make it up. If you were expecting something of the same calibre as the single Pencil Full of Lead, you're in for a surprise- aside from the misleadingly upbeat 10/10 which heads up the twelve-track CD, the album is mostly populated by reflective, ambiguous, mellow songs. Some are even a bit slushy. Maybe this was the reason for the eggs in the title.
A couple of years ago my mum and sister saw dear Paolo at Glastonbury singing I Wanna Be Like You to a toy orangutan, drunk as a lord. But here Nutini's certainly sounding more mature and sober- his vocals deepen one minute and croon in falsetto the next, his guitar swaps between chugging through a country chord sequence and humming melodiously under borderline-religious lyrics. The track Coming Up Easy speaks of being purified by rain and 'created in love', while a later track is entitled simply Chamber Music, and the final track, Keep Rolling, could easily be sung my a church choir with its harmonious backing vocals and organ-like drone.
Maybe he has grown up since 2006's These Streets, from which the incredibly sexy Loving You and New Shoes are a far cry from Simple Things and Worried Man. These last two, in fact, remind me far more of another singer-songwriter with a partiality to booze- the walking bass and lyrics made me think of Johnny Cash, particularly the line- 'help him Jesus, help him to walk along the line/because he thinks he's getting old before his time'.
I hope the Worried Man Nutini's lamenting isn't himself. But maybe with worry comes maturity, as seen in lyrics and the album literature- in search of revealing sleevenotes I found a drawing on the very first page entitled 'Paolo and Delilah in Daddy's studio'. Has the singer-songwriter settled down with his songs and thoughts of kids? Perhaps. I'd be interested to see him live now.
Though maybe the orangutan would be kept backstage
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