Nilüfer Yanya has at all times been an intriguing songwriter. On her debut album ‘Miss Universe’, her genre-spanning songs have been threaded collectively by Black Mirror-inspired voice notes, with eerie clips hooked round a fictional well being firm known as “WWayHealth” (We Fear About Your Well being). Making a narrative across the report by way of this ominous organisation who promised to “fear about you so that you don’t need to”, the messages additionally acted as a throughline, piecing collectively the musically diverse report. In the meantime its follow-up ‘Painless’ noticed Yanya draw on extra leftfield influences (like t.A.T.u.) and fuse them with – as NME mentioned on the time – “Nirvana-style murk and jerky, Bloc Celebration fashion post-punk”.
Third album, ‘My Methodology Actor’, as soon as once more distils the London singer-songwriter’s creativity: constructing blocks of percolating beats, wiry guitar licks, lashings of grunge and plush hovering vocal melodies all accompany Yanya’s ruminative lyrics. The report noticed her work completely with Wilma Archer (Sudan Archives, Celeste), a longtime collaborator who additionally labored on her earlier two information. The duo, Yanya has defined in a press release, saved the staff for the mission small with a purpose to “not dilute [the album and songwriting process] in any means, even when it’s coming from insecurity – ‘oh is that this good?’”
The outcomes of this stripped-back inventive circle are a set of artfully and intentionally crafted tunes, albeit one which’s lacking the dusting of euphoric pop her debut boasted (à la driving earworm ‘Child Blu’ and the Kelis-inspired ‘Warmth Rises’). They’re songs that really feel like they’ve been written with a razor focus, every instrumental line enjoying a function. It’s maybe overly thought-about at instances (the sleepy ‘Made Out Of Reminiscence’, for instance, could possibly be elevated with a splash of spontaneity), however largely the sheer songwriting power wins out, aided by Yanya’s considerate lyricism.
Take ‘Name It Love’, a mirrored image on sophisticated relationship dynamics that sees Yanya sing, “Nonetheless Ironic/Nonetheless I need it/Nonetheless alone!”, later concluding with the sincere couplet: “Some name it love/I name it disgrace”. The advanced isolation of the monitor is echoed musically by a buzzing, overdriven riff, the considerably jarring sonics juxtaposed over the music’s different lilting instrumentals.
In the meantime, trip-hop sensibilities and jittering Strokes-infused guitars come to a head on ‘Mutations’, a driving minimize that sees Yanya chew over “the refined change that occurs always as hundreds of thousands of tiny choices and actions form your being”. These small shifts are echoed within the association of the music, instrumental strains and preparations delicately altering, cinematic strings ebbing right here, beats skittering there.
There are earworms too, within the type of the brief and candy opening tune ‘Preserve On Dancing’, and the killer, grungy-chorus-boasting ‘Like I Say (I Runaway)’. The latter is a damning evaluation of the inevitable passage of time and the way it ticks by too rapidly, with Yanya musing: “Does it really feel like all you’ve got/Is put in black and white?/The minute I’m not in management/I’m tearing up inside”.
It’s a report that spins the rising aches and pains of your twenties – and the realisations and choices that come throughout these instances – via Yanya’s musical world. And whereas ‘My Methodology Actor’ is fastidiously crafted and will fall into the entice of being unduly deliberated, Yanya {couples} these particulars with moments of eye watering vulnerability (take ‘Wingspan’, the place she sings: “You don’t get to be devoted/Now you’re lifeless to me”). An sincere, modern assortment that bolsters her popularity as a stellar songwriter, Yanya “undiluted” makes for an absorbing hear.
Particulars
- Report label: Ninja Tune
- Launch date: September 13, 2024
