Album review: Paolo Nutini – Caustic Love

Caustic Love is the Scottish singer's 'mature album' - one that sets him up for a new phase of his promising career.

Paolo Nutini

Caustic Sound

(Atlantic) ⋆⋆⋆

Paolo Nutini's third album, Caustic Love, is a move in the right direction. Stepping away from his pop-star image, the 27-year-old Scotsman's latest release is an attempt to be viewed as a bona fide soul man. Recorded with a large live band in Glasgow, the songs here are full of texture and detail as opposed to the homespun acoustic charms of previous albums Sunny Side Up (2009) and These Streets (2006). An example is the expansive One Day, a brooding lullaby that begins with a stalking drum beat, a tittering organ before the chiming guitars march through to add some light. There is also some swagger here: Let Me Down Easy gallops at an easy pace with swirling horns and organ, while Numpty is the kind of song you'd nod along to in a grimy jazz bar. Of course, none of this would work without Nutini's gorgeous voice. There is a new-found confidence to his raspy flow due to its restraint; he knows when to sit back and – as in Diana's falsetto chorus – to really go for it. Caustic Love is Nutini's "mature album" and sets him up for a new phase of his promising career.