Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up

Justifiably described as "the best singing talent to emerge from a Scottish fish and chip shop this century" Paolo Nutini does not disappoint with his second album.

I went looking for this album after seeing Paolo perform on the Graham Norton Show but more of that later. This turned out to be one of those occasions where the track that inspired me to buy the album turned out to be completely different in some way from the rest of the album. "pencil full of lead" is the track in question and its up-beat trad-jazz feel would not be out of place on a Kenny Ball album. This is in marked contrast to the rest of the tracks (and all of the tracks on his first album) which have a much more modern soulful feel.

Yet the quality of both the songwriting and the performance shines through in all the styles he adopts and the album stands as a complete work without any weak tracks. There is a sadness that pervades a lot of the songs so this is not a dance party favorite but for any quiet introspection or Sunday Brunch background it fits perfectly.

If you like "Sunny Side Up" then check out his debut album "These Streets"

 As mentioned above I first say Paolo on an episode of the Graham Norton show. Guests on that show included Anna Paquin (from Tru-Blood) which is why I was watching the episode in the first place. (Just in case they feel left out, the other guests were Mitchel and Webb who were also entertaining.) This episode seems to get repeated quite often on cable and is well worth watching more than once.

Besides the live performance from Paolo there is the skype session with "the Streep Brothers" in Cape Town, fans (huge understatement) of Anna who perform a song they have written about her.

I've tried including youtube links below for both Paolo's performance and the Streep Brothers. Having watched it again I'll have to go a source a copy of the song  A-N-N-A....

Links:-

Anna Paquin's Face Scrunching Song

Paolo Nutini on Graham Norton - song starts at 4:50