Lewis Capaldi

Capaldi's brother had him on Slipknot; pop radio was a joke until 'Coming Up Easy' came on. 'I remember hearing this on the radio, which I found very strange because it had that kind of old school vibe, which I loved,' he said, 'I thought that is exactly the kind of stuff that I would love to do.' Nutini was from Paisley, a few miles from Capaldi's West Lothian — 'that's so cool it's a Scottish guy who's doing this,' he remembered thinking, the first proof a voice like his own could carry a chart record.

listen: upstream & hereshare

2009

Coming Up EasyPaolo Nutini

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2017

BruisesLewis Capaldi

listen forBoth tracks let a plain, conversational verse run long before any real payoff arrives. Nutini spends most of the song repeating a simple line under a slow-building organ-and-horn arrangement before the ending swell finally lands; Capaldi does the same on piano and voice alone, holding the arrangement bare until the vocal is already cracking by the second chorus, the emotional peak arriving late rather than up front.

'Sex on Fire' and 'Use Somebody' had already passed him by, Capaldi says — it was working backward through the early albums that hooked him, especially deep cut 'Arizona': 'Caleb's voice could sing anything and it would sound like a great song. When I was younger and writing songs, I used to imagine Caleb singing it, and if he could pull it off then I'd write it down.' He tried to force that same rasp into his own teenage voice and, by his own account, 'damaged my voice irreparably trying to impersonate him.'

listen: upstream & hereshare

2004

ArizonaKings of Leon

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2018

Someone You LovedLewis Capaldi

listen forListen for the strain itself. Followill lets his voice crack and thin on the high notes of 'Arizona' rather than smoothing them into pitch, sounding, in Capaldi's own phrase, like it 'could tear and go away at any minute' — the same fraying edge Capaldi pushes into on the hook of 'Someone You Loved', a voice worked past its comfortable range on purpose, not polished into a clean, controlled belt.

Watching a British documentary series about the Beatles, Capaldi expected Beatles performances and instead found people covering them — and one clip stuck: Joe Cocker's gravel-throated take on 'With a Little Help from My Friends'. 'It just sounded so good,' he said, 'and I remember seeing it and going, that's how I want to sing, that's how I'd love to sound.' Chasing that rasp as a young teenager, he admits, 'I sounded horrible... I think I've probably done some irreparable damage to my throat! All courtesy of Mr. Joe Cocker.'

listen: upstream & hereshare

1968

With a Little Help from My FriendsJoe Cocker

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2023

Wish You The BestLewis Capaldi

listen forCompare how each voice handles the climb to the hook rather than the words themselves. Cocker tears the line apart on the way up, letting the rasp take over instead of hitting the note cleanly; Capaldi does the same fraying ascent into the chorus of 'Wish You The Best', the grain and crack in the voice carrying as much of the emotion as the melody underneath it.