By Kate Wiselogel, Contributor 

[ATO; 2024] 

Rating 7/10 

Key Tracks: “Like I Say (I runaway),” “Keep on Dancing,” “Made Out of Memory,” “Faith’s Late”

British singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya recently released her third album, titled My Method Actor. The album comes two years after her last release, Painless (2022). On this new release, Yanya continues to expand her repertoire of introspective, mellow and guitar-driven indie-rock songs while also finding some room to experiment. 

My Method Actor was preceded in April by the lead single, “Like I Say (I runaway),” one of the best songs to come out of this year so far. “Like I Say (I runaway)” features the introspective lyrics and layered vocals that are standard for Yanya’s music. However, as emotional as the lyrics are, they are also remarkably sparse, particularly in the song’s verses. The verses are built around the repetition of the phrase, “Like I say.”  

The effect of all of this is that the song builds towards its chorus and as it gets there, the chorus itself feels like a release. The chorus of “Like I Say (I runaway)” feels like a confession from Yanya, with her admitting that “I feel like all my friends / They don’t read my mind / The minute I’m not in control / I’m tearing up inside.” Compare this with the song’s first verse, in which Yanya confidently remarks that she “can never lose, it’s a state of mind.” This contrast between confidence and insecurity is present in lyrics throughout the album and ties into the idea of method acting that is evoked by the album’s title. 

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“Keep On Dancing,” the album’s opener, features Yanya potentially acknowledging the listener of the song, stating that “Just like a child, I play for your applause / Until you smile, I’m fucking miserable.” This breaking of the fourth wall by Yanya fits right in with the idea of method acting, a topic that Yanya draws from throughout the album. 

In “Just a Western,” Yanya states that “Life’s not a western,” making a clear distinction between how situations such as the break-up that Yanya is seemingly describing in that song differ in the romanticized world of film vs in real life. The process of method acting blurs these lines between reality and romanticization, similarly to how Yanya, in her lyrics, emphasizes how insecurity and confidence often coexist in the mind of a person. 

The album’s biggest weakness is probably its track listing and the abundance of downtempo songs one after the other. While these songs are very good, it can be easy for songs such as “Ready For Sun,” “Mutations,” and “Call It Love” to blend together when listening to the album in order. This is not to say that these songs are bad, but more so that their arrangement within the order of the album could be better.  

It is important to recognize that these more downtempo tracks do really help to flesh out the album and create an interesting contrast with the more up-tempo tracks such as “Like I Say” and “My Method Actor.” “Call It Love” in particular is structured in such a way that it feels like the inverse of “Like I Say.” Whereas “Like I Say” features sparse verses that break away into the song’s chorus, “Call It Love” features somewhat more complex verses with a sparser chorus. The way that Yanya plays with the structuring of her songs and contrasts them helps to more fully flesh out her album. 

In listening to My Method Actor, Yanya comes off as the confident yet self-aware cool girl who is incredibly intimidating and impossible to not want to be friends with. Yanya’s songs are compelling both lyrically and sonically, making for a very solid overall album with solid individual tracks. With the confidence that Yanya exudes on this album, it will be exciting to see where she goes next as she continues to perfect her indie-rock sound. 

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4BBVZgRsWeNVgGmub6LY3p?si=yRQVcvZmSqi5NzNmO8Y0-g