PAINLESS (Deluxe Edition) Nilüfer Yanya

• 1 the dealer 03:38
• 2 L/R 03:39
• 3 shameless 04:34
• 4 stabilise 03:32
• 5 chase me 03:30
• 6 midnight sun 04:42
• 7 trouble 05:04
• 8 try 04:10
• 9 company 03:46
• 10 belong with you 02:56
• 11 the mystic 03:33
• 12 anotherlife 03:23
• 13 shameless (reflects) 04:37
• 14 midnight sun (reflects) (acoustic version) 04:55
• 15 chase me (reflects) 03:28
• 16 midnight sun (sampha remix) 04:17
• 17 midnight sun (king krule remix) 05:03
• 18 Rid Of Me 03:37
• Total Runtime 01:12:24

Info for PAINLESS (Deluxe Edition)

Mercurial London artist Nilüfer Yanya releases her hugely anticipated second album Painless. It's 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.

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”.

"Whether her words come from personal experience or not, Yanya’s able to swell with empathy in ways few current songwriters can convey. It’s audible how she places herself within the circumstances of a song, maybe to feel herself, but in doing so she connects with her audience on a different level. Questions are raised every day in the modern world, and while pop music isn’t going to provide answers, if we listen closely to Yanya’s honest words on PAINLESS we can create our own comfort. Patience. Stability. Dealing. Trying. It speaks to everyone on every level, and it’s precisely the kind of message the world needs." (beatsperminute.com)

"When London singer/songwriter Nilüfer Yanya made her full-length debut following a string of well-received singles and EPs, it was with Miss Universe, an eclectic concept album painted with bold, high-contrast strokes and a few passing moments of intimate impressionism. Three years later, the follow-up, PAINLESS, is a more soft-spoken outing lost in rumination and more-candid emotion. It was recorded with Miss Universe producer Wlima Archer (aka Slime), Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Nick Hakim), indie electronic/art-pop artist Bullion, and musician Jazzi Bobbi, all of whom had a hand in producing. Yanya opens the nonetheless even-keeled album with a rhythmically propulsive meditation on how the linear nature of life and death intertwines with the cyclical passing of seasons ("the dealer"). Its wispy, multi-tracked vocals are set against thumping drums and deep, grooving bass, while harmonized guitar riffs provide the track's meaty center. The song's relatively straightforward arrangement and mix is later contrasted by songs like "L/R" and "the mystic" that play with stereo effects, and "trouble," which ends in layers of melodic distortion over thumping beats, one of several brief excursions into noise here. The midtempo, rhythmically loping "midnight sun" is a standout for its slowly developing guitar patterns, which provide more of a backbone for the song than its rhythmic section. There is little quality distinction, however, between tracks on an album that remains thoughtful, sonically overcast, and quietly trippy throughout, even on the galloping "stabilize," in which a spookily multi-tracked Yanya repeatedly insists "I'm going nowhere" ("until it bleeds"). If PAINLESS is less ambitious and attention-grabbing than her debut, it sees Yanya makes strides in being more affecting." (Marcy Donelson, AMG)

Nilüfer Yanya

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