Songs of the Week highlights new songs and reviews notable releases. Find our new favorites and more in our Spotify best songs playlist and to see other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify new sounds play list. This week, Nilüfer Yanya, Remi Wolf and NxWorries dominate the scene on Friday.
Method acting can seem a bit counterintuitive, striving for authenticity while also fully immersing yourself in a character. But the goal is to fit so fully into someone else's reality that the audience doesn't know they're watching a performance.
While Nilüfer Yanya is less concerned with the effectiveness of the practice, she is interested in harnessing it as a metaphor for pretentiousness and honesty. “People like you and I get tired / People like us, our dreams fade,” she sings in the new song, titled “Method Actor.” Here, she is left completely helpless in the wake of a relationship gone wrong, grieving the loss of someone who put on a strong enough performance to deceive her. “I gave you everything,” she points out four different times.
The British artist has a particular ability to bridge genres in her music, and “Method Actor” is no exception. Light bossa nova rhythms dance throughout the verses, but the chorus veers into something heavy and dissonant; the melody throughout the song floats, undisturbed, in a way that feels removed from any instrumental direction. If it causes whiplash, it's by design; There is something to be said for the confusion associated with examining the intentions of a deceptive partner.
“Just shake with laughter, my method actor,” he whispers with resignation. It's another especially strong release from Yanya, whose spellbinding “Like I Say (I runaway)” made our list of the 100 best songs of the year so far.
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