Nilüfer Yanya's acting masterclass
Nilüfer Yanya's acting masterclass
On "My Method Actor," the British singer-songwriter takes a long, brutally honest look in the mirror
Brat summer never existed for Nilüfer Yanya.
Instead, the British singer-songwriter spends her third album, My Method Actor, wondering if she’ll maintain a self-destructive loop of falling hard in love then destroying herself when it all goes to hell.
Call it “Body Horror Autumn.”
Jokes aside, body horror as a movie genre has produced some of the better movies of the recent past, including this year’s The Substance, the Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley-starring gorefest that literally bathes in the bloody consequences when dealing with societal expectations of beauty. Where that movie is satirical, My Method Actor is a brutally honest self-dissection. In each song, Yanya details coping mechanisms she uses in her attempts to get over the past.
Album opener “Keep on Dancing” finds Yanya sarcastically tipping her glass at a party, trying her best to hide how she’s “fucking miserable.” “Like I Say (I Runaway)” comes next, with clarity from the hangover. In the “early morning truth” of the latter song, she reckons with insecurities by blasting them through speakers. She needs to be in control, making sure everyone knows: the moment she lets you in, she usually runs away.
Yanya’s confessions continue on the violent title track. She physically tears herself down before rebuilding walls. While she muses about death before falling in love, down-tuned, distorted guitars bust through the looking glass. It’s nearly a jump-scare how the song snaps from a variation on the drumbeat from Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” to a staccato nu metal riff.
Yanya’s scenes are matched by her and producer Wilma Archer’s taste. “Call It Love” has a guitar solo that sounds like a neon light cutting through a curtain with its filters and distortion. That warm, overdriven hum of guitars pushes acoustic, sample-based tracks into stadium-sized hits. Previously, that song was “Midnight Sun” from 2022’s Painless. On My Method Actor, it’s “Like I Say (I Runaway).” The emptiness of the club fills “Binding,” a song that more strongly shows the comedown with its tempo, reverb-heavy drum machine beat, and finger-plucked guitars.
In other hands, My Method Actor is an overdramatic slog that dials between radio-friendly, “never give up on yourself” anthems and a playlist for the local board game cafe. You know the type with the songs about fireworks and ex-boyfriend’s sweaters. Yanya has no rallying cries that would fit on an oven mitt. She has no interest in pop music’s expectations. She can’t bullshit you, either — she has no answers.
On the final track, “Wingspan,” she ends the album, hinting that destiny may include going through this entire self-destructive pattern again. It may not be a chart-topper, but the clarity that comes from knowing that about yourself is worth more than stats and plaques from a dead industry.