For me there is some music that is always attached to personal experience, whether that's a place I listened to it in, an experience I went through while it was there, or sometimes, the person that introduced me to it.
The boy who gave me Paolo Nutini's "These Streets" was never one of my close friends. We never went to see Paolo Nutini together, we never talked about the lyrics or sang along in the car or anything. But he was a friend my dad and I met on holiday in Kenya, his mother and mine bonded when I was eleven and lost and shy. He was five years older than me, I remember quite charismatic and loved music , had wild curly hair and my dad thought he was the most charming person in the world I think.
His name was Harley, because of the motorcycle on which he was conceived. I'm not even kidding.
We left, there were a few emails and then we all lost touch, but this person will never realise how much they influenced my musical taste... at a time it was very easily influenced and fragile. Harley gave us a whole stack of CDs, and I can't remember what all of them were but it included the Fratellis first album. And one of them was Paolo Nutini's "These Streets".
Paolo Nutini is a singer/songwriter from Scotland, most famous for "New Shoes" and "Candy" but "These Streets" starts with "Jenny Don't Be Hasty", closer to a rock song than the rest of his stuff, a story about a girlfriend leaving him because he lied about his age.
"Last Request" and "Rewind" are both beautiful, soft songs about the ending of a relationship. Both are gentle, acoustic guitar led pop songs. The concept of "Last Request" is stunning and hurts a little, a song about knowing and accepting that it's over but pleading her for one last night with him, and "Rewind" reflects over a better time and wonders why it can't come back, with a chorus that is both catchy and full of soul.
"Million Faces" is a grower, and "These Streets", the title song, is wonderful - a song, like a few of Paolo Nutini's, about growing old and confused, and being lost in a familiar city, with a gorgeous string arrangement.
"New Shoes" was the first single from this album I believe, and it's gleefully carefree, the sort of song you walk down the street to on a really sunny morning and throw in a dance step on the pavement when you don't think anyone's looking. "White Lies" starts with a beautiful high pitched melody plucked on a guitar, another one about lost love. "Loving You" is full of energy, yet gentle and flirtatious, one of those on the album where Nutini's vocals really thrive.
"Autumn Leaves"... in the first few years of high school I would tell people it was going to be my funeral song. Maybe it still will be. Just his voice and a piano, a song about the death of a family member, but it's bittersweet rather than just gloomy, it ponders over a life, the good and the bad.
No song on the album tells a story quite as captivating as "Alloway Grove", with a refrain of "la la la la la's" that will have you singing along, it tells the story of chasing a promiscuous lover, of needing them in a way that they don't need you, and I misinterpreted the story in a weird way at 11 (for whatever reason, I thought she'd committed suicide but now realise she had just run away to London. You'll get what I mean.) The song fades, the simple chords strummed on an acoustic guitar bleeding into heavier, electric power chords. This leads into the second part of the medley - "Northern Skies", which is gorgeous, melancholy and quiet.
"These Streets" is a brilliant collection of songs and, equally importantly, stories, and in my opinion he didn't quite find this with second record "Sunny Side Up", where some of it seemed a little cutesy and Jack Johnson-esque. "These Streets" is a brilliant stripped back, acoustic folk-pop record, touching on both Nutini's Scottish and Italian routes and I really recommend it - as I'm sure Harley would too.
"Million Faces" is a grower, and "These Streets", the title song, is wonderful - a song, like a few of Paolo Nutini's, about growing old and confused, and being lost in a familiar city, with a gorgeous string arrangement.
"New Shoes" was the first single from this album I believe, and it's gleefully carefree, the sort of song you walk down the street to on a really sunny morning and throw in a dance step on the pavement when you don't think anyone's looking. "White Lies" starts with a beautiful high pitched melody plucked on a guitar, another one about lost love. "Loving You" is full of energy, yet gentle and flirtatious, one of those on the album where Nutini's vocals really thrive.
"Autumn Leaves"... in the first few years of high school I would tell people it was going to be my funeral song. Maybe it still will be. Just his voice and a piano, a song about the death of a family member, but it's bittersweet rather than just gloomy, it ponders over a life, the good and the bad.
No song on the album tells a story quite as captivating as "Alloway Grove", with a refrain of "la la la la la's" that will have you singing along, it tells the story of chasing a promiscuous lover, of needing them in a way that they don't need you, and I misinterpreted the story in a weird way at 11 (for whatever reason, I thought she'd committed suicide but now realise she had just run away to London. You'll get what I mean.) The song fades, the simple chords strummed on an acoustic guitar bleeding into heavier, electric power chords. This leads into the second part of the medley - "Northern Skies", which is gorgeous, melancholy and quiet.
"These Streets" is a brilliant collection of songs and, equally importantly, stories, and in my opinion he didn't quite find this with second record "Sunny Side Up", where some of it seemed a little cutesy and Jack Johnson-esque. "These Streets" is a brilliant stripped back, acoustic folk-pop record, touching on both Nutini's Scottish and Italian routes and I really recommend it - as I'm sure Harley would too.
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