SONG OF THE DAY
“Coming Up Easy” by Paolo Nutini (Sunny Side Up, Atlantic Records, 2009). Co-written by Nutini and Matty Benbrook.
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– Sunny Side Up is the second studio album by Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini.
– Nutini and his band, The Vipers, toured the United States briefly before a UK tour prior to the album’s release. The album debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart.
– The album features guest appearances from trombonist Rico Rodriguez and
?uestlove.
– The album was the 8th best selling album in the United Kingdom of 2009 and the sixth of 2010.
– On 3 January 2010 Sunny Side Up topped the UK Album Charts for a second time, making the album the first #1 album in the United Kingdom of 2010 and the decade.
– On 19 February 2010, Colin Farrell presented Nutini with “Best International Album” for Sunny Side Up at the 2010 Meteor Awards.
– On 20 May 2010, Sunny Side Up won the Best Album title at the Ivor Novello Awards.
– The album received a mixed critical reception. Allmusic’s Thom Jurek noted the move away from the sound of the debut album: “Nutini has taken huge chunks of America’s (and Scotland’s) pop and folk pasts and reshaped them in his own image,” going on to describe it as “wise beyond this songwriter’s years”.
– Andy Gill of The Independent commented on Nutini’s progress since his debut, saying the album “sees the singer making giant strides in several directions”, and going on to say “don’t be surprised if, come December, this is one of the year’s biggest-selling albums.”
– Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph was also positive, stating “his joyous second album organically blends soul, country, folk and the brash, horny energy of ragtime swing.”
– “Coming Up Easy” was the second single from the album.
– The song’s content concentrates on Nutini’s struggles with marijuana but Nutini has expressed that it can be listened to from other perspectives. Nutini stated: “Its about my own conflict I had about marijuana but you can hear it as a song about relationships, compromising, having to deal with someone else’s emotions. It’s about bad habits and breaking up, but I wanted to keep it positive.”
– Music website ilike gave “Coming Up Easy” a positive review, stating:
“Written by Paolo Nutini and produced by Paolo and Ethan Johns (Kings Of Leon) the rolling soul of ‘Coming Up Easy’ is one of many highlights on Sunny Side Up. Paolo’s mesmerising and powerful voice has no equal, which is beautifully portrayed through the soulful swing of ‘Coming Up Easy’.”
– The BBC was less positive: “This, while a nice song, is not one of the most precious treasures. Which makes it an odd choice for a single. The trouble is, the one thing Paolo should have maybe stopped himself from doing is the painstaking recreation of that big Jools Holland-approved ’60s soul sound. Y’know, like in The Commitments. He’s got the voice for it, he clearly knows the turf well enough to pen a decent ditty in that style, but compared to the giddy fun of ‘Pencil Full Of Lead’, or the spiralling South American folk-gospel of ‘High Hopes’, ‘Coming Up Easy’ just sounds too reverential to the past. Too obvious.”
– The “Coming Up Easy” music video was released on 28 July 2009. The video saw Nutini making friends with a giant bunny rabbit and heading down to the pub with him where they share a few pints, play darts and almost end up in a bar brawl.
– “Coming Up Easy” charted and peaked at #62 in the UK Singles Chart. The song became Nutini’s 6th consecutive top 75 hit in UK but remains his lowest peaking single to date.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Here’s the link to the youtube video (embedding disabled).