Nilüfer Yanya
My Method Actor
Release Date: Sep 13, 2024
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
Record label: Ninja Tune
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Album Review: My Method Actor by Nilüfer Yanya
Excellent, Based on 8 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
Nilüfer Yanya might well be the new best British rockstar. With each new album her music gets louder, grittier, heavier. Her third album, My Method Actor, builds on the moody thunder of 2022's incredible PAINLESS--the songwriting is more thoughtful, the arrangements thicker and more lush, the singing sharper and more affecting. The album was produced with barely any external contributors giving input; it was recorded in a "bubble," as she puts it, with her collaborative partner Wilma Archer.
Based on rating 8/10
She emerged from the indie-rock stylings of her previous work, including her full-length debut, 2019's Miss Universe. Pivoting into a lush amalgam of hooks and sonics, her vocals were sultrier than ever, her soundscapes exquisitely textured. Additionally, her lyrics reflected a newly accessed poeticism and vulnerability. With Painless, she broadened, deepened, and streamlined her MO, the album representing a stylistic culmination, an arrival of sorts.
Based on rating 8/10
The task is doubly difficult when dealing with an artist like Nilüfer Yanya, whose craft is as much about elaboration as it is about refinement. 2022's phenomenal PAINLESS balanced the scales of musical comfort and adventurousness adeptly, mixing brash production with alluring vocal melodies. On Yanya's third full-length My Method Actor, those same scales are just as present, but the balance feels much more precarious.
Based on rating 4
An album of constant surprises in which to immerse, it confirms its creator as an exciting talent There’s a parallel universe where Nilüfer Yanya is a member of a girl group managed by Louis Tomlinson of One Direction. Back in 2014, after hearing Yanya’s demo recordings on Soundcloud, a music executive contacted her and offered her what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. In a smart move, she turned it down.
Based on rating 4/5
Nilüfer Yanya's debut, Miss Universe, felt like a refreshing new twist on guitar music back in 2019 and her credentials were confirmed on 2022's Painless. Now, My Method Actor continues an excellent run from an artist who can seemingly do no wrong. Songs like Like I Say (I runaway) or Method Actor retain her fuzzy guitars, but Yanya's voice has been distilled to its purest essence, rarely needing to rise above a whisper to get her message across.
Based on rating 3.5/5
room to breathe... *sigh* PAINLESS was a crystal clear step-up for an artist that fashioned a razor-sharp indie sound by restricting her husky vocal performance to operate under noisey drum loops and fuzzed-out guitars providing over 30 atmospheres worth of barometric pressure. It was a winning formula that contrasted with Nilüfer Yanya's exactingly lush tones and provided propulsion to her mellowest of songs.
Opinion: Excellent
Somewhere in the ancient mystic trinity sits Nilüfer Yanya's ‘My Method Actor’. After all, three is the magic number. And this, her third studio album, the London-based artist come into her own. Working exclusively with producer Wilma Archer on all eleven tracks on the album may just have been her saving grace.
Opinion: Excellent
"What you looking for?" asks Nilüfer Yanya on the opening track of her third album, 'My Method Actor'. It's the first question of many in an album that is brimming with curiosity and exploration - an album on which, from the off, Nilüfer strives to make an excavation of the core of who she is. More expansive and undiluted than its predecessors, she seems to find room to explore both sonically and lyrically.
'My Method Actor'
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