Sunny Side Up By Paolo Nutini

Scottish crooner Paolo Nutini’s new album “Sunny Side Up” makes his debut “These Streets” look tame and slightly boring in comparison. Not that his first album wasn’t great to listen to throughout, but it was fairly intense and emotional and Nutini seems to have much more fun on this second album, as he gets more musically experimental and his sound becomes happier.

The touring that Nutini did on the back of “These Streets” is evident because a lot of the songs here experiment with sounds from around the world; like folk, reggae and ragged rock. Indeed, the first track, “Ten-ten,” has an old ragtime vibe to it as trumpets open the record for the listeners. It’s a fun track and looks sure to have fans up on their feet and dancing around to it.

Somehow Nutini manages to make his rough and occasionally warbling voice work for his music amazingly well. It’s doubtful that the ballad, “Coming Up Easy,” would work for anyone else except him in fact. The same is true of tracks “Growing Up Beside You” and “High Hopes.”

“Tricks Of The Trade” is one of the few slow and stripped-down songs on the album, but akin to Nutini’s breakout hit, “Last Request,” the song is attractive because of its honesty and no-frills sound.

The album picks right up after this with “Pencil Full Of Lead,” which sums up the buoyant energy of the album and you can really hear Nutini having fun with his music. He then goes on to channel Bob Dylan’s vibe on “Chamber Music,” and evoke a rambling country sound on “Simple Things.”

Because of the eclectic collection of several genres on this album, you’re either likely to be confused by it and put off by Nutini’s old-beyond-his-years ragged voice, or if you get past that you’ll get as much joy out of listening to this CD as Nutini did making it. And you’ll be repeating it endlessly for the rest of the year. It’s a unique and highly enjoyable collection of songs and it’s a record that’s difficult to turn off!