Metro, October 2022
Google Paolo Nutini and the top question is, somewhat tellingly, “what’s happened to Paolo Nutini”. On the evidence of his first major tour in over seven years, it’s a conundrum his fans have been grappling with for a while too; this is a raucous, almost pent-up affair, full of people just waiting to bellow along to the likes of Scream (Funk My Life Up), Candy and Jenny Don’t Be Hasty all over again.
Nutini commits with a passion too; Candy’s pretty sunshine folk transposing into a raw, Rod Stewart-like stomp, Cherry Blossom revealing a messianic frontman fully in tune with his noisier, psychedelic side. What’s interesting, though, is that for all those old hits, the reception to songs from new album Last Night In The Bittersweet is equally as strong.
So it should be. It may have passed the critics by somewhat, but it’s a fantastic, surprising and diverse record. Shifting from the Elvis Costello vibes of Petrified In Love to the slow-burning Take Me Take Mine and rousing love song Acid Eyes, it’s clear his fans have bought into the light and shade of his new songs.
But nuance is difficult to pull off in a lairy, sold out gig in a cramped Victorian warehouse on a Saturday night in Manchester. People cannot see or indeed hear particularly well. Nutini admits to being nervous. It takes longer than one might expect – perhaps the pure soul of new song Through The Echoes, a full ten songs in – for the noisy chatter to die down.
Is that all Nutini’s fault? Of course not. But it does feel that a 140-minute set – Let Me Down Easy gets a full Balearic treatment, Shine A Light has a 12-inch remix – is asking a lot of a restless crowd. Last Night In The Bittersweet proves Nutini is back on top form; perhaps he just needs to refine some of his stagecraft.
