Nilufer Yanya

Oh my i love this stuff. Surprised there's been no thread yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbLewPw9jFo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmmQuNl_8xc

her 2018 single is my favorite one yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsx1cOjydBA

yeah also good!

Really great set opening for Sharon Van Etten last night. The Joan Armatrenaissance is upon us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Qdo_mapSQ

Support slots from a bunch of great bands, amazing singles, fantastic videos, great imagery, great reviews, everything you might want from a new pop star, complete indifference from ILX?

Not entirely. She made the 2017 tracks poll with Baby Luv, which was the first time/place I'd ever heard it or heard of her. And she shows up in the rolling favorites threads too.

I guess people are just waiting for there to be more than one song at a time to talk about?

(Album's streaming on NPR, btw.)

not entirely sure of what to say about this record yet but pretty impressed after one listen

"paradise" and "baby blu" were particularly exceptional

I cannot decide which song I love more: "Golden Cage" has that amazing sax/vocal battle for the lead melodic supremacy, and my favorite use of empty space since James Blake's "Limit to Your Love"; "The Florist" does Coldplay better than even their "A Rush of Blood to the Head" heights (how the fuck has it not been remixed into a massive lights-everywhere IDM stadium-filler, especially after the 2nd verse, when the pre-chorus builds to the chorus?); and the gritty punk-adjacent squal of "In Your Head"; damn, they are all so awesome!

this is great, she really can write a hook and the album covers a surprising amount of stylistic ground while still feeling quite cohesive as a whole. the skits are completely unnecessary though

yeah even with the silly interludes this might be my favourite album so far this year. “in my head” won’t get out of my head!!

I love how on “Melt” she’s got a saxophonist playing this gorgeous, romantic melody and then over the top of it she sings “I bet your brain cells won't last / I bet they cling to the trash / I hope you melt on the way back to your place”

"heavyweight champion of the year" didn't really grab me when it was the lead single but it's so effective as the album closer, being relatively stripped down before briefly exploding

"melt" is absolutely one of the highlights and i think this might be my favourite album so far this year too

Have heard only half of the album so far but all her singles have been magical. Something about her sound, its sparseness and home-made classiness, reminds me of early Sade.

Terrific album.

Wow yeah better even than i hoped; funny that none of the early stuff is on it but these are her best songs i think, so you can see why.

Baby Blu the absolute keeper, holy shit.

thought she was great in Porto the other week, having not heard anything before. record has some great stuff on it and looking forward to whats next- could do with losing the skits for sure. my main take from the live show was that she was maybe unconsciously channeling some major Prefab Sprout vibes. i'm guessing Safety Net might be the track that hits that vibe best? thats my vibe. VIBES.

the way this album heavily channels sophisti-pop vibes but with a bunch of noise often thrown on top is so good

If only more sophisti-pop was like that.

I like this album a lot; I listen to it once a week.

You wouldn't have thought that pinpointing an exact midpoint between early 90s indie rock and Sade would work but somehow she pulls it off. I think the unshowiness of her voice really does the songs a favour here.

"the midpoint between early 90s indie rock and Sade" -- what a fantastic way of framing this album

Expanding upon that, there's something about the way she juxtaposes signifiers of smoothness with signifiers of scuzziness that feels both unique and very consciously done.

"the midpoint between early 90s indie rock and Sade" -- what a fantastic way of framing this album

cosign

I've been hearing it as "what if Joan Armatrading invented Britpop?" (didn't she?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyNsnX0o78Q

new mix of "heat rises" with a video, though there's not that much different

i still completely adore this album

same! It's a lovely Sunday morning record.

this is really good! just saw it on pitchfork's year-end best rock albums, missed this thread

yeah very cool, distinctive guitar playing and great songs...the whole vibe feels instantly familiar but yet unique which is always a good sign

its easily the indie rock album of the year

has a cool 80s vibe without seeming specifically retro

ugh just found out she played here last week and i had no idea

New 3-song EP out

https://open.spotify.com/album/0mWQGICfoe7XAWueJRuAgV/

and it's really good.

yeah she's still great. doesn't quite reach the peaks her album did but still very enjoyable

she covered "rid of me"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0hq8YsXBTg

at 11:13

Wow, I think I prefer her stripped down and slightly looser like this. Nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWdIFrDUWOs

it feels more like a cool album track than an obvious single choice but i quite like it

like that riff in the verse is such a weird thing to build the song around, she actively resists her usual melodicism & even the chorus is quite restrained in that regard but it works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax_tCstL-H4

looking forward to seeing her at coachella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh_c0e7LgMk

expecting this to be a pretty good album

new album is sounding good, idk if it's quite as great as the debut though

Enjoyed it on first listen. The closing track was probably my favourite

big turn inward, huge step up imo.

BNM on p4k
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nilufer-yanya-painless/

Weird that they categorize it as pop/r&b sounds like indie rock/pop to me. Not hearing the r&b.

maybe it was the 1975 thread where there was a running list of possible influences and "sounds like _____"

would be fun exercise with her music and the list orbs out hard with this release. seems like she had a rich musical interest from early age.

Let’s see…

- stabilize reminds me of bloc party’s debut
- midnight sun sounds a bit like radiohead, like arpeggi or the intro to paranoid android before it turns into a MBV wall of sound.
- trouble has an atmosphere that reminds of The XX but the guitar sounds more like Modest Mouse to my ears.

I'm liking the shit out of this. The songs are bangers.

incredible album this

a few random ones i hear

-midnight sun: smashing pumpkins, bush, silverchair
-trouble: sarah mclachlan, portishead
-belong with you: pixies, weezer

knew i would love this record from the instant it started

I haven't heard the album yet, but the acoustic guitar + beat on Midnight Sun sounded a lot like Four Tet circa Pause or maybe that one Luscious Jackson song. I also hear a lot of Odelay in the 90s-influenced indie that's around these days

ok I'm listening and none of those refs are relevant to the other songs, sorry

"trouble" is gorgeous wow

The drumming on "the mystic" is sick.

her debut was absolutely one of my favourite indie rock records of the last few years and this is a very worthy follow-up even if i don't quite love it as much. it's only a small shift (it's a bit more minor key, the tension's a bit more explicit, there's more propulsive drumming, the programmed beats are grittier) but it's all moved just a little bit away from the breezy sound of her debut. the only track i'm not sold on yet is "chase me" which is just lacking hooks & general points of interest compared to everything else.

the comparison i regularly saw thrown around early on with her was 'pixies meets sade' and that captures a lot of what she's doing but far from all of it, and she's moved a little further away from that now.

she's also occupying fairly similar territory to king krule but i like what she's done with it much much more

ooooh this is very good. Still sounds like her old material but way more explorative and all of it good. Saxes on "belong with you" are a good example.

I put the debut in my top ten that year, but this thing is hooks hooks hooks; it's as if she used what she learned about space and cool sounds and came up with song after song instead of what were even at its best impressively ruminative tone poems.

she's also occupying fairly similar territory to king krule but i like what she's done with it much much more

― ufo, Monday, March 7, 2022 6:09 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

wow i never would've thought this based on her prior work, guess i gotta listen to her new one

idk i would have said that about her earlier work too, there's fairly clear similarities in their sonic palettes, just the new one is a little gloomier which brings her a bit closer? her songs are still poppier & breezier than the sort of murk he prefers though by a fair way

on my first listen and i do hear where you're coming from, "l/r" seems like something he could've done, but he would've skipped the lovely falsetto chorus and those unexpected major chords that pop in

- stabilize reminds me of bloc party’s debut

yes

did a great version of “rid of me” live tonight

oooh

I was actively trying to decide if the album reminded me of PJ. I was leaning yes, so that's cool to hear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36gGaOtT-A

great performance

I like that energetic live version of Midnight Sun on Fallon better than anything I heard on my first listen to the album

great performance for sure, but the drummer looks so much like tim robinson that it nearly took me out of the whole thing haha

Fuuuck this is fantastic.

(the album)

must be hard to suddenly play a drummerless show (out sick apparently -- "we had to leave him behind... somewhere"), but last night was amazing. kinda emphasized how Yanya has the best guitar sound of anyone right now. it also made the "Rid of Me" cover feel more like a reimagining, just Jazzi Bobbi's foghorn blasts to signal the loud part.

she's officially released the Rid of Me cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB1GP5XuK5s

fuck, she’s so great. Her guitar work sounds like the platonic ideal of what I wish I could play, perfect hybrid of rhythm and melody.

new single "like i say (runaway)" out on the 24th

https://www.instagram.com/niluferyanyaaaaaa/reel/C56P752Nw46/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkfbnFyZpok

pretty nice

yeah, a good one!!

i didn’t expect such anthemic vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YJfRrd8EqU

love love love the new singles

that's really great! loving the approach to rhythm in both. also bought tickets to see her live in October :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mQPsV0TgFg

that's lovely. Painless was often a really emotional album for me, so I'm glad to hear something a bit more introspective

another new single out today

she's 4/4 so far re: new album

new album is gonna be so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FUOXQiaBuo

i keep hearing 'some call it love i call it champagne' instead, and now i love cil even more

I'm late to the last album, and these singles have been killer. Can't wait.

How is the stuff before Painless?

I seem to be in the minority on this, but her pre-Painless stuff doesn't do much for me, that aforementioned album was when she really levelled up imo

I like plenty of her early stuff, especially some of the singles (“Baby Luv”, “Thanks 4 Nothing”). Miss Universe was pretty good too, but I agree that Painless was like her moving to another level, I really hope she sustains it on the new one. I only listened to “Like I Say” (which I loved), saving the rest for once the full record is out

Yeah I'm on a kind of opposite trajectory. Was introduced via Painless, which is really good, with clear highlights. But Miss Universe has better songs, in my opinion (though, yeah, could lose the new-age health skits). The acoustin EP stuff before that is boring. But here's the problem: I'm pretty underwhelmed by the new songs from this. Mutations, Call It Love, and Made Out of Memory are suffer from a lack of hooks (weird for her), bland drum programming, and a general coffe shop vibe. Strange.

she's consistently excellent imo, miss universe and painless are both great (though the skits on miss universe are completely skippable). the main difference is just that painless is a bit spikier? i guess the crash ep & inside out (which collects her pre-album material) aren't quite on the same level but she's one of the very best artists in indie rock right now and the singles from the new album have been continuing that trend

oh the crash ep is 'feeling lucky?' i forgot

half the album is out already, AOTY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60JoNqfCBxY

lol 6 pre-release singles is a bit ridiculous but they're all good so i can't complain

album's very good although i don't think it quite hits the same highs as the last two?

album's very good although i don't think it quite hits the same highs as the last two?

opening track absolutely phenomenal, set me up for something perhaps a little better than what the rest has delivered

Since last night I've imagined Miranda Lambert singing these songs.

Cover art is a bit of a turn

I miss the enhanced spikiness of the previous album on first listen, but the ballads here seem absolutely phenomenal

Yeah, I'm struck by "Mutations" and "Wingspan."

Cover art is a bit of a turn

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, September 13, 2024 8:06 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

tbf her first album was called miss universe

On first listen, a pretty big disappointment. Too many slow songs, drums and too dry, and not the hooks from her previous two albums. The first 3 songs are good, but after that I lost interest.

i gather I should finally give her a listen

The songcraft is obviously strong and I'm pretty sure this will reward repeated deep listening but part of me misses the funky early Sade vibe of her first releases.

it's definitely a more downbeat if not downcast album, though I mostly like the moodiness. it's certainly less accessible than Painless though

Very impressed so far...I'm sure there's good reason for releasing half the album before the actual release date but so many of these songs sound much better In context

I'm kind of underwhelmed a bit by it, but since its a Pitchfork best of , I guess I should listen some more. It's ok

Finally getting around to this and really dig the vibe. Sounds great.

this took a few listens to fully click for me, but now I'm into it. I don't think it rises to Painless's level, but I appreciate the changes

Since last night I've imagined Miranda Lambert singing these songs.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

nice. the ballads i would have imagined Jonnine Standish (around rhinestones) singing them, maybe. except call it love. call it love is all Nilü, can't imagine no one else

I know I shouldn't be so entitled as to expect an artist to play my favourites of hers but I was kinda bummed that her current live set doesn't have so many of my faves of hers (Shamelsss off Painless, Keep On Dancing, Made Out Of Memory and Just A Western off the new one)

still a great live performer and a great show I guess

kind of amazed to learn she doesn't play any guitar on the new one. it's like Will Archer phased in so gradually as her recording guitar double I never noticed.

It caught me offguard too.

I didn't realize that either, but it tracks with the show I saw on Friday. There was also more saxophone in the mix than I realized from the albums, assuming that wasn't added just for the live versions. Still, the most stunning moment was her doing a song from Miss Universe (I think, don't know that album v well) solo just her singing and guitar

I can sympathize with Murgatroid from the other side: Trouble is probably my favorite from her and it was incredible

other highlights: Stabilise, Call It Love, the Rid Of Me cover is really something live, and finishing the encore with Midnight Sun

on the fourth song so far - if it stays this strong it might be a contender for aoty! so raw and powerful :’)

kind of amazed to learn she doesn't play any guitar on the new one. it's like Will Archer phased in so gradually as her recording guitar double I never noticed.

She writes some undeniable guitar parts, her riffs on stabilise are all time... so I was kind of struck when her playing looked amateur in this video! Not bad by any means, it still sounds fantastic, but technique-wise, her strumming hand would be disciplined by a guitar tutor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2y34oneXh4

Curiosity got me checking if she ever plays that stabilise riff, would be a difficult one to nail while singing at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARHCDwEKaW4

She only hits the first and fourth note. At least she gets the easier chorus one downpat!

Based on her rhythm in the fender video, there's no way she's playing "keep on dancing" anywhere close to the level of professionalism on the recording.

must be hard to suddenly play a drummerless show (out sick apparently -- "we had to leave him behind... somewhere"), but last night was amazing. kinda emphasized how Yanya has the best guitar sound of anyone right now. it also made the "Rid of Me" cover feel more like a reimagining, just Jazzi Bobbi's foghorn blasts to signal the loud part.

― sloop johnnin' skater (geoffreyess), Sunday, May 15, 2022 8:54 PM (two years ago)

Jazzi Bobbi released an EP called Crush a few month ago, I love its Machine Dreams-era Little Dragon vibes

there's no way she's playing "keep on dancing" anywhere close to the level of professionalism on the recording.

This is true (but I still stand by what I said...)

Re the “Stabilise” riff, I listened to it loud (recommended!) and I’m pretty sure it’s a quarter note riff with an eighth note slapback delay, so that may be why she looks less busy than the riff sounds.

Nah, there's three different notes on consecutive eighth notes. High-low-mid-mid, repeat pattern throughout

I've gotta stop posting in this thread.... She's so great and I'm coming off as a h8er!! I don't need my songwriters to be shredlords, sessions musicians need jobs too!

New track “Cold Heart” out now, it rules obv