Paolo Nutini
caustic Love
IT HAS been almost five years since the Italian-Scotsman has released anything new, but the wait for his latest offering, Caustic Love, has most definitely been worth it. Nutini takes a step away from his guitar and dances into the soul-funk genre with tracks like album opener and lead single Scream (Funk My Life Up) and Let Me Down Easy which samples Betty LaVette's 1960s classic Motown track. This third album is a step in a different direction for the 27-year-old, but his growing maturity will help.
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Aloe Blacc
Lift Your Spirit
WITH his latest single The Man topping the UK charts, Aloe Blacc has clearly maintained a presence since the release of I Need A Dollar in 2010. It's fitting that the 35-year-old's new album starts with an acoustic version of Avicii's massive summer anthem, Wake Me Up, which he co-wrote and provided vocals for. Lift Your Spirit continues in the retro soul/ funk/gospel theme that the Panamanian-American singer (whose real name is Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III) has become known for, with the usual lashings of modern R&B and hip-hop. The good songs comfortably make up for the shortfalls.
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Cyndi Lauper
She's So Unusual: A 30th Anniversary celebration
INCREDIBLE to think it was over 30 years ago that the karaoke staple Girls Just Want To Have Fun made No 2 in the UK charts. Her debut was a mix of new wave and bouncy pop, and the ballads Time After Time and All Through The Night are timeless. The additional tracks are remixes and demos, including an early, very different version of Girls... This will probably only interest die-hard fans, but the original album was a consistent debut that still fizzes with energy.
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