Description
Mercurial London artist Nilüfer Yanya's hugely anticipated
second album PAINLESS via ATO Records.
PAINLESS is the follow-up to Nilüfer Yanya’s renowned 2019 debut album Miss
Universe, which fully established her as a singular artist and a distinctive voice that
simply has to be heard. The critically acclaimed Miss Universe - a widescreen concept
record that took a tongue in cheek swipe at the most self-involved corners of the
health and wellness industry - was followed last year by the three song EP Feeling
Lucky?, which further explored Yanya’s fascination with ‘90s alt-rock melodies and
drew on themes of resentment, her fear of flying, and the concept of luck. Pitchfork
summed up Feeling Lucky? and her now peerless songwriting aptitude best: “Nilüfer
Yanya’s melodies have a pull so strong they almost necessitate their own law of
physics.”
As the daughter of two visual artists (her Irish-Barbadian mother is a textile designer
and her Turkish-born father’s work is exhibited at the British Museum) creativity was
always destined for Nilüfer Yanya’s future. Now she enters the next stage of her
creative journey, Yanya is running head first into the depths of emotional
vulnerability on her sophomore record PAINLESS. The album was recorded between
a basement studio in Stoke Newington and Riverfish Music in Penzance with Miss
Universe collaborator and producer Wilma Archer, DEEK Recordings founder
Bullion, Big Thief producer Andrew Sarlo, and musician Jazzi Bobbi.
Where Miss Universe stretched musical boundaries to include a litany of styles from
smooth jazz melodies to radio ready pop, PAINLESS takes a more direct sonic
approach. By narrowing down her previously broad palette to a handful of robust
ideas that revolve around melancholy harmonies and looped industrial beats to
mimic the insular focus of the lyrics, Yanya has smoothed out the idiosyncrasies of
previous releases without losing what is essential to her.
PAINLESS is a record that forces the listener to sit with the discomfort that
accompanies so many of life’s biggest challenges whether it be relationship
breakdowns, coping with loneliness, or the search for our inner self. “It's a record
about emotion,” Yanya explains. “I think it's more open about that in a way that Miss
Universe wasn't because there's so many cloaks and sleeves with the concept I built
around it.” She adds, summing up the ethos of the new album, “I'm not as scared to
admit my feelings”.
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