If you talk to artists about the sequencing of their albums, the agony of choice becomes clear: where to start, where to end – and how to arrange things in the middle? Difficult decisions, especially at a time when the sound carrier format no longer plays a role, but there are agencies that create streaming optimization concepts.
PAINLESS, the second album by songwriter and guitarist Nilufer Yanya, has an unusual, maybe even unfortunate, sequencing. The opening song “The Dealer” offers uncouth big beats and bulky melodies, the following “L_R” sounds like a washed-out 80ies art pop ballad. St. Vincent offers a similar sound tableau on her records, but arranges her songs more adventurously and richly than the Briton.
The track “Shameless” comes in third place, and the knot is loosened for the first time with the grandiose pop chorus: this music has to be on the radio at night when the taxi hovers over bridges and deserted streets. That elegant fulfillment, however, is followed by the artist’s stumbling “Stabilise” before “Chase Me” combines broken beats and neo-soul. Again and again the record recovers from such cracks, for example with the reduced 90ies guitar song “Company”. But PAINLESS doesn’t really come to rest.
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