Nilüfer Yanya

Nilüfer Yanya has shared a new album PAINLESS, ATO Records/ [PIAS]. ‘the dealer’ the final single is an upbeat, rhythm-driven track with Nilüfer's vocals bouncing throughout, and featured last night on BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds show as Hottest Record In The World.

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Speaking about the new single, Nilüfer says, "When I was writing this song I was thinking about the transient nature of life and the cyclical nature of the seasons. I find it interesting how we attach certain memories and feelings to different seasons and tend to revisit them time and time again, yet our lives move in a more linear motion and even when we feel like we are going back we never really get to go back anywhere. Musically speaking it's a bit more playful and relaxed."

‘the dealer’ comes on the heels of the first three offerings from PAINLESS - ‘anotherlife,’ which arrived with a music video directed by Molly Daniel in Sri Lanka, ‘midnight sun’, which Pitchfork proclaimed as their 'Best New Track' and described as some of Nilüfer's, "most potent work" as well as ‘stabilise,’ which Paste Magazine noted, "augurs great things to come on Yanya’s new record."

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.” Yanya also re-released her early EPs on vinyl for the first time this year on the record Inside Out. The release is a fundraiser for Artists in Transit, a collaborative not for profit group she founded with her sister Molly that delivers art workshops to displaced people and communities in times of hardship.

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”.