The last new material we heard from London's Nilüfer Yanya was the Feeling Lucky? EP late last year.
Containing the beguiling Day 7.5093 – which we named one of late December 2020/early January 2021's essential guitar tracks – the three-song collection showed the guitarist gleefully doing away with your typical genre, style and structure constraints, to dazzling effect.
Now, Yanya has announced her second full-length album, PAINLESS, and shared its lead single, the taught, up-tempo stabilise.
With multiple, intertwining layers of nervy, punky, single-note guitar lines and anxious lyrics detailing the mundanity and mental challenges of modern city life, the song brings classic, mid-oughts Bloc Party to mind, while carving out its own unmistakable and vital space.
You can check out the song's creative music video – directed by Yanya's sister, Molly Daniel – below.
"I was really thinking about your surroundings and how much they influence or change your perception of things," Yanya said of the song in a statement. "A lot of the city is just grey and concrete, there's no escape.”
PAINLESS was recorded with Wilma Archer – who produced Yanya's 2019 debut full-length, Miss Universe – DEEK Recordings founder Bullion, Big Thief producer Andrew Sarlo, and Jazzi Bobbi, and is set for a March 4, 2022 release via ATO Records.
To preorder PAINLESS, stop by Yanya's website.
Nilüfer Yanya – PAINLESS:
1. the dealer
2. L/R
3. shameless
4. stabilise
5. chase me
6. midnight sun
7. trouble
8. try
9. company
10. belong with you
11. the mystic
12. anotherlife