Pretty much all genres in pop pass by on Paolo Nutini’s Last Night in the Bittersweet ★★★★☆

After you have made a hugely successful soul album, which has achieved platinum status several times, eight years later you come with the announcement that your new album is going more in the rock direction. The Scottish Paolo Nutini does it just like that. Caustic Love from 2014 was Nutini’s love letter to soul giants like Otis Redding and Solomon Burke. While Last Night in the Bittersweet means a return to the idiom of Nutini’s first two albums.

But the rock soup is not eaten as hot when served. Just about all genres in pop are covered in the sixteen songs. Radio sounds like a vintage radio rock song that John Mayer could have written, if it had more emotional urgency in its thunder. The Beatles wouldn’t be ashamed of a ballad like Julianne† And Abigail disguises himself as a classic country gem.

It all convinces because Nutini’s agile voice nestles itself in any musical context. In the new wave-like Lose It the supercooled Lou Reed diction creates a wonderful threat that increases when the song is filled with whining guitars and a women’s choir. In Through the Echoes it is precisely the emotional raspyness of Nutini’s voice that he exploits. The inspiration of the singing cantor who carries his community along. Yep, soul again.

But worlds come together in everywhere† After a long, raw, languid build-up, it is the rock guitars that provide the emotional closing. It shows what Nutini is best at: rock and soul.