Singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini is an enigma, anomaly, or something else entirely. The Scotsman with the Italian name lets loose a voice which sounds like it's echoing out of the Gulf of Mississippi halfway between Mobile and Montego Bay. His 2009 sophomore album, SUNNY SIDE UP, ups the disconnect ante with a timeless tone which seems to gather up more styles from the nexus of the 1960s and `70s than is sonically possible. At different times on this enchanting record, and often even within the same song, Nutini can conjure up Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Cliff, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and the list goes on ad infinitum. However, the echoes of his contemporaries like Mayer and Mraz remain on an affable affair of an LP.

2009 Warner