Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up Review
Posted by CA on 06.27.2009
Paolo tries to break from his Pop past and make his own footprint on history with his second LP. In the process, he touches just about every genre possible....except Death Metal...he doesn't get there.
Track Listing:
1. 10-10 (2:56)
2. Coming Up Easy (4:18)
3. Growing Up Beside You (3:23)
4. Candy (4:58)
5. Tricks of the Trade (2:32)
6. Pencil Full of Lead (2:26)
7. No Other Way (4:25)
8. High Hopes (2:56)
9. Chamber Music (2:27)
10. Simple Things (2:33)
11. Worried Man (3:01)
12. Keep Rolling (5:08)
13. Smokey Joe’s Café (2:43) (iTunes-only bonus track)
14. Funky Cigarette (2:29) (ITunes-only bonus track)
Hailing from Scotland, Paolo Nutini was first discovered and signed to Atlantic Records at 18. Upon listening to his 2006 debut album, These Streets, his age is absolutely showing. The production of that album was saccharine pop, with lyrics that were metaphorically see-through and sometimes so forced that they induced vomiting. Though Nutini is partially credited with writing most of the songs on that record, his apparent discomfort was telling that he didn’t feel quite at ease for the record. It wasn’t all bad, by any means, tracks like “Alloway Grove” and “New Shoes” were catchy for sure. But for those of us that had seen Nutini perform live before buying These Streets, we knew he could do more. His gravely, soulful voice was mostly wasted on that attempt; thrown away on poppy material and ultra-clean production meant to attract teenage girls (not that it was unsuccessful towards that goal).
With Nutini’s second record, Sunny Side Up, Paolo steps out in front on both the songwriting and producing to put his own personal stamp on the album and he creates a much more successful product. A few things about this record are obvious from the beginning. First, Paolo has grown immeasurably since These Streets. All of these songs exhibit a maturity unseen on any of the songs from that album. Meaning, Paolo seems to be interested in writing songs about the parts of life that don’t necessarily have anything to do with love and loss. Second, Nutini is using this record to experiment with genre MUCH more than he did before. Sunny Side Up has bits of reggae, soul, blues, traditional British and Scottish folk, country, and jazz….with little evidence of that saccharine pop anywhere to be found. One would expect the person that wrote this record to be a lot more akin to Ray LaMontagne than the Jonas Brothers. Finally, on this record, Paolo seems absolutely more comfortable with his place in the studio. His voice sounds easy and he isn’t afraid to let his band, the Vipers, step forward and take a song over from time to time.
Sunny Side Up begins with the track “10-10”. This is a fun reggae-styled danceable jaunt. The song is deliriously happy with its Hepcat-esque beat. Nutini’s voice easily slips into the groove, and it makes a good novelty track. But, I question why Nutini chose this as the album opener, because it doesn’t really match anything else on the album. The track order is one part of a larger problem that will become the album’s biggest drawback; namely that Sunny Side Up sounds less like a complete album and more like a collection of random songs. Even at that, the songs seem to trip randomly from topic to topic and genre to genre without rhyme or reason.
After “10-10” is clearly the album’s signature track, “Coming Up Easy”. This soul-inspired song is absolutely excellent. Nutini channels Sam Phillips and exhibits the absolute power of his voice. I wouldn’t mind hearing an album full of this kind of song, but Nutini doesn’t dwell there as he immediately moves into a folk-styled track with “Growing Up Beside You”. It’s a nice Nick Drake/John Martyn-inspired love song with easy going accompaniment from the Vipers. Next up, Nutini decides to try his hand at country on “Candy”. Another good song with possibly the strongest finish of any on the album, but at this point his genre experimentation is starting to feel just a bit tiring and the listener begins to pay more attention to what Nutini is trying to do thematically and less to the actual songs (which are the strength of the album). The first half of the album closes strong with “Pencil Full of Lead”, a swing influenced foot tapper.
On the last half of Sunny Side Up there are two standout tracks. First off is “High Hopes”. Imagine the sweet innocent tuning of a Paul Simon song with Van Morrison on the microphone. Unbelievably positive in its message, and moving enough to be the kind of song that makes your day just a little bit better than it was before. The second highlight is “Worried Man”, a song that is seemingly Nutini’s tribute to Johnny Cash with elements of Scottish folk. The album closes with “Keep Rolling”. Not only is this not the best track to finish the album with, but I’m not even sure why this track is included in the final edit of the album. It is an utterly forgettable ending to what was, other than that, an enjoyable album.
The 411: Moments of absolute brilliance are hindered by trying to drink from a few too many troughs, resulting in a fractured grouping of songs recorded by an absolutely talented young man. This is miles ahead of his last release, and shows signs of a fantastic career yet to come, once he can cement his own voice. It's listenable. It's enjoyable. It's just not very memorable.
