What We're Listening To

REVIEW
Paulo Nutini popped up three years ago with These Streets, and became a target in a game of musical whack-a-mole.

While many UK listeners warmed to the Scot's soft and polite semi-acoustic balladry, it wasn't unusual to find him squashed in with coffee table acts like James Morrison and James Blunt, waiting to be criticially drowned like cats in a bag.

Second album Sunny Side Up reveals Nutini has more depth and gravel than these artists, but possibly not the spark required to fully escape their orbit yet.

He swings from Bob Marley to Otis Redding, infusing 10/10 with ska, Coming Up Easy with light soul and Candy with a lilting country feel.

But these spirits don't so much possess him as hang off him, like a dog that's just arrived back at the house with bits of litter, gum and hedgerow stuck to its fur.