Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up

A million sales of debut album 'These Streets', Scotland's Paolo Nutini could have played the easy option and recorded a similar batch of songs for this second full-length release, 'Sunny Side Up'. Instead, this 21-year-old singer-songwriter has stepped away from the ballads and offered a truly mixed-bag of songs, that may offend some of his former fans.

Although a risky option, he's definitely going in the right direction if he wants a long-lasting career in music. Across 'Sunny Side Up' we get to hear everything from ska on '10/10', rustic folk within 'Tricks Of The Trade' and 'Chamber Music', Hammond-organ coated soul on 'Coming Up Easy', Calypso percussion and Hawaiin-esque flavours on 'High Hopes', a flirt with jaunty jazz during 'Pencil Full Of Lead', and New Orleans blues throughout 'No Other Way'.

The recordings are much, much rawer than 'These Streets' and it turns out Paolo co-produced the songs. Also worth noting - as it's impossible to ignore - is Nutini's voice, which has improved dramatically since his debut. His weathered vocals are now wise far behind his years, containing the kind of emotion it's hard to fake.

Few tracks sound alike and just as Paolo's singing voice has matured, so have his songwriting capabilities. 'Sunny Side Up' is an album that far outweighs any expectation, and is a surprise gem of 2009 - this won't go unnoticed when the end-of-year polls roll in around December.