If there’s one thing Paolo Nutini‘s 2006 debut single ‘Last Request’ positively oozes, it’s summer.
Beginning with a gentle guitar strum that casts images of lying lazily in the grass on a breezy, sunny day, then gradually crescendoing into a pure anthem of a chorus that was made to be belted out alongside friends – as proved at last year’s T in the Park festival – Nutini wasted no time with this track in showing the world just how special his music is.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nkFq1hv6L8]
It’s also one of those feel-good songs that isn’t quite so feel-good when you actually stop and listen to the lyrics. The very title itself should be a sad indicator of the doomed relationship Nutini is crooning about: echoing that of a condemned prisoner being given one final meal before execution, ‘Last Request’ is not a song about love but about love gone very, very wrong.
Words by Samantha King