“This should rubber-stamp Nilüfer Yanya as a generational star.” - The Telegraph
Nilüfer Yanya released her second album PAINLESS on Friday 4th March on ATO Records (including a store-exclusive green vinyl version) to rapturous critical acclaim. The album has already been crowned Album Of The Week at The Guardian and iPaper, as well as receiving a perfect 5-star review from The Telegraph and her second consecutive album awarded Best New Music at Pitchfork.
As well as running Nilüfer Yanya's official store, the team at Townsend Music have had PAINLESS on repeat, collectively falling in love with the record as it drifts across the office. Honeyed pop vocals spread their wings over a kaleidoscope of stylistic backdrops, from drum n bass loops to alternative rock riffs. “It's a record about emotion,” Yanya reflects. “I think it's more open about that in a way that my first record wasn't because there's so many cloaks and sleeves with the concept I built around it.”
Townsend Music D2C New Business Manager Ben James was determined to bring Nilüfer into our community of artist stores from the moment he heard her music: "I've known Nilüfer’s management team (Red Light Management) over the years and worked with them with a lot of artists. We share the same taste in many things, so much so that I often used to compete with them when we both wanted to sign a similar artist back in the day! Nilüfer immediately hit me as an artist from their stable that forges her own path and has her own clear voice... and that is perfectly realised on PAINLESS."
PAINLESS is the follow-up to Nilüfer Yanya’s renowned 2019 debut album Miss Universe. In the lead up to the album, Nilüfer built-up excitement with a string of singles that demonstrated the evolution of her sound: 'Stabilise', 'Midnight Sun' (which Pitchfork proclaimed as their Best New Track) and 'Anotherlife'.
"From the first listen of ’Stabilise’, I was hooked on the new level she’d reached with her writing and sound," Ben continues. "I could see there would be real interest from press and radio in what she was doing. The follow up ‘Midnight Sun’ took things in a whole different direction, but with the same assurance and belief in where she was in the world... and the tunes have just kept on coming."
“Nilüfer forges her own path and has her own clear voice and that is perfectly realised on PAINLESS” - Ben James
As the tunes kept coming, so did the reviews, and - as Gigwise duly noted - the consensus is that the record is "an early album of the year contender". Pitchfork named the album Best New Music and observed: “the singer-songwriter’s striking second album excels at subtle disclosure, relying less on power than it does texture and immaculately sparing detail."
The Guardian described the album as “refined indie-pop with a disquieting lyrical edge... as with her musical forebears, Nilüfer Yanya seems interested only in doing it her way.” Stereogum concurred: “PAINLESS is a showcase for Yanya’s immense talents, a moodboard for how many different ways she can render the same sort of hurt”
On Nilüfer's Official Store the exclusive green LP and CD versions of the record come complete with a signed postcard. Merchandise, including t-shirts and heavy shopper totes, are also available now.
"Thank you everyone for your support it really means the world to me!" - Nilüfer Yanya
"I'm so glad to see the love she’s been getting Stateside from the likes of Pitchfork and the New York Times." Ben smiles. "And we've had Album of the Week status in the likes of The Guardian and The Independent over here, as well as the immense support from BBC Radio 1, Spotify and more." As the image of the Nifüfer Yanya billboard beaming down on New York's Times Square attests, with PAINLESS we're witnessing a superstar on the ascent.
PAINLESS is available now from Nilüfer Yanya's Official Store.