These Streets [CD]

19-year old Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini sounds older than his years on his debut album, These Streets. It's not just his careworn, smooth-as-sandpaper voice, either (although, admittedly, it does help). It's more to do with the maturity of the lyrics, and the casual soulfulness of his delivery. "Last Request" is more the work of a vintage Motown singer than a teenager from Paisley, and it's to Nutini's credit that he carries it off with aplomb. And rather like the soul singers of previous generations, he manages to sing without a hint of hypocrisy about his own sexual exploits ("Jenny Don't Be Hasty") while also questioning his girlfriend's fidelity ("Alloway Grove"). It's the fact that he's so frank, and even a little bit naive, that he manages to get away with it. And though the stripped-down tunes on These Streets don't always immediately grab the listener (the title track, in particular), the songs where Nutini is accompanied by a full band often manage to evoke sunny-day American soul ("New Shoes", for example). This is a strong debut, and considering Paolo Nutini's tender years, bigger things can be expected of him in the future. --Ted Kord

You know what? This album is good. You wanna know something else? Paolo Nutini absolutely, without a doubt, ROCKS, only in a really quiet sort of way. Paolo needs nothing other than his gently strummed acoustic guitar to make with the rock, because he can enthral you with his voice, compelling you to lie on your bed and waste away hours just listening to him sing your troubles away. It may be a worn cliché but, trust me now, isn't that really what music is for?

"Last Request" you'll have already heard and swooned over, but there's plenty more where that came from. The title track is as bittersweet an ode to the town you come from as you'll hear this side of an acoustic Arctic Monkey, and there's still eight other pretty ditties here to cause total spine melt.

Which brings us to our only complaint...why the hell are there only 10 songs?

Review courtesy of Top of the Pops --Jack Smith

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Nutini’s songs suggest he knows an awful lot about the vicissitudes of life and love, and demonstrate his unique gift for expressing in song the attitudes and experiences of someone his age. ‘These Streets’ records his experiences of moving to London, a song which wistfully name checks the places in which he grew up and is sure to strike a chord with anyone who has ever lived in bedsit-land. "Feeling good, feeling down, telling a few white lies. It's a very personal record," says Nutini, "but hopefully other people can relate to the feelings." Many of the songs on the album, including ‘Last Request’ and ‘Rewind', were inspired by a turbulent relationship with a girlfriend, and ‘Jenny Don't Be Hasty’ is a true story about encounters with an older woman.

Despite the Italian name, the Nutini family have lived in Paisley for at least four generations. Paolo's great-grandfather opened the fish and chip shop in Paisley, which his parents now run. Nutini grew up hanging out and later working in the shop but was always surrounded by music. His grandfather - commemorated in the elegiac ‘Autumn’ on the album - played him Scottish folk songs by the Corries and a local priest would often come round to play boogie-woogie on the family piano. Exposure to '50s rock'n'roll came via his father's love of the Drifters, and amongst an aunt's record collection he found a Ray Charles album, which began his love of classic soul. Further influences inlcude the work of such classic troubadours as John Martyn and Van Morrison. When the opportunity arose to tour the UK as a roadie for a friends band, Paolo quit school in Glasgow and the die was cast. After moving to London, he performed regularly at the Bedford in Balham, later signing to Atlantic Records shortly after his 18th birthday.