Nilüfer Yanya
PAINLESS
Release Date: Mar 4, 2022
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
Record label: ATO Records
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Album Review: PAINLESS by Nilüfer Yanya
Great, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Nilüfer Yanya draws strength from her emotional resilience on PAINLESS. If the title to the West London singer-songwriter's second LP states otherwise, it's the sort of defense mechanism she's developed since 2019's breakthrough debut album Miss Universe. That release revealed an artist relishing big ideas but expressing them in small ways, on which she came up with a concept album satirizing big business masquerading as wellness bliss.
Based on rating 8/10
In his posthumously released 1996 children's book My Many Coloured Days, Dr. Seuss wrote that, on bright blue days he flapped his wings; on yellow days he was a bee; on orange a circus seal. But of grey days, Seuss wrote, "Everything is grey. I watch. But nothing moves today." The illustrated ….
Based on rating 8/10
But Nilüfer Yanya somehow managed to pull it off in some style, and sustain it for almost an hour, with her debut Miss Universe. The safety net of this facade helped Yanya craft beautifully textured worlds, tinged with a sadness she might have otherwise shied away from. There's only so long that an artist can hide behind a concept, however. Luckily, with her second album PAINLESS, the complete Yanya steps out from behind the curtain.
Based on rating 3
A showcase of excellent songwriting, the Londoner’s latest is inward-looking and consistent in its tone Very much a rising star in guitar-based indie music, London’s Nilüfer Yanya solidified her reputation with her 2019 debut album, Miss Universe. That was a loose concept album based around the health industry, and its only real flaw was a series of interruptions in the form of satirical skits - which could easily be forgiven since the quality of the songs bookended within those interruptions was so high. A child of the 1990s, Yanya brought together the best parts of the Britpop, R&B and pop of that decade and alchemised them into one of the most promising debuts of recent years.
Opinion: Excellent
If West London songwriter Nilüfer Yanya's debut album 'MISS UNIVERSE' was marked by a perpetual restlessness then new LP 'Painless' is, by comparison, much more lived-in, settled, and rested. It's a confident return, one that pits her dreamy, sonorous elements against a willingness to experiments, and absorb other voices and approaches into her own. 'the dealer' is a clipped, urgent intro, while 'L/R' drops the tempo for a kind of 80s leaning zero gravity workout.
'PAINLESS'
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