Soulful but casual Paolo Nutini

It is difficult to predict stardom for any newcomer to the music scene. Talent and hard work count but the Fates has its personal preferences. Admittedly a lot of great albums land on the wayside with the music they contain doomed never to be heard again. The truth of this must be the reason why I still get a kick when I come across newcomers who evoke that adrenalin surge. They are so rare. And believe me, when you have been checking out the music business as long as I have, you develop this gut feel that tells you you are listening to a star. One of them is Paolo Nutini.

Despite that Italian sounding name, this pop troubadour comes from Scotland and is now acknowledged as one of the most exciting voices of recent times. He sounds a whole lot better than James Blunt who made it big on the strength of intoning You’re Beautiful. His songwriting is a lot of miles more sophisticated than Daniel Powter’s who got a big hit because his Bad Day was used in American Idol.

Judging from what I heard in his first album These Streets, I do not think Nutini should be ranked alongside Blunt or Powter. He is in a different league. I think of him as a gritty, male version of Norah Jones or a younger, naïve but more candid edition of John Mayer. And would you believe, Paolo who also has the features of a Greek god to boot (think Apollo but toting a guitar and not a lyre), is only 20 years old.

Nutini’s family has been in the fish and chips business for generations in Paisley, but the boy developed a flair for music at a young age and decided to become a singer. He left school when he was 15 and took on odd jobs like selling rock T-shirts, gopher in a recording studio or roadie for some band. He was 18 when Atlantic Records signed him to a contract. A year later, he released These Streets. Made up entirely of his original compositions, it became an instant hit in the UK. Hopefully, it will also become a big seller in other countries soon.

Soulful but casual, amusingly frank, Nutini comes to us decked out in knowledge and insight way beyond his years. He mostly expresses his feelings with a worldlywise stance. "Autumn leaves under frozen souls/hungry hands turning soft and old/my hero cried as we stood out there in the cold/like these autumn leaves I don’t have nothing to hold," he sings in the poignant Autumn.

But there is really no way he can keep his youth hidden all the time and he is the jealous teenager, raging hormones and all in Alloway Grove. "Coming home again/to see a girl that’s prettier than a diamond in the sun/oh what fun!/ I wonder if she’s been naked in her room since I’ve been gone/I wonder if she’s said to them as she said to me before/ however much you use me baby, come on use me more."

And there are more of the same in These Streets, Jenny Don’t Be Hasty, Last Request, Rewind, Million Faces, New Shoes, White Lies and Loving You.

Top hits in the US

Speaking of Norah Jones, her new album, Not Too Late is No. 1 in the Billboard 200 list of top selling albums in the US this week. The rest that made it to the Top 10 are the following: In My Songs by Gerald Levent; Grammy Nominees 2007 by Various Artists; Corinne Bailey Rae the debut album by Grammy nominee Corinne Bailey Rae; Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy; The Evolution of Robin Thicke by Robin Thicke; FutureSex/LoveSounds by Justin Timberlake; Taking the Long Way by The Dixie Chicks; Daughtry by American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry and Continuum by John Mayer.

The Top 10 singles in the Hot 100 tabulation are: What Goes Around… Comes Around by Justin Timberlake; Runaway Love by Ludacris featuring Mary J. Blige; Say It Right by Nelly Furtado; Not Ready to Make Nice by The Dixie Chicks; Don’t Matter by Akon; The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani featuring Akon; It’s Not Over by Daughtry; Cupid’s Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes featuring Patrick Stump; Irreplaceable by Beyoncé and This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race by Fall Out Boy.