Soer's Sunday Jams: Nilüfer Yanya - Crash

Published on 2020-11-01 00:00:00 by Will Soer

[This is transcribed from audio notes I recorded whilst listening to Crash for the first time, walking alongside a river at 7pm on a Friday. Its still a Sunday Jam though. Also Im covering for Nana this week, my names Will, I edit Sunday Jams and Deep Cuts and whatnot.]So my first thought about 10 seconds into the new Nilüfer Yanya song is that shes here and shes gonna save us all. It immediately highlights what I loved about her music, something thats developed over time and is why Im particularly excited for what comes next, her taste with sound. The first time I read about her, a jouralist described her with the words Jazz and Grunge in the same sentence, which made no sense to me whatsoever, and there is a variety of sounds within her debut album, but there are points when they gell so lovelely, not sounding like anyone else. Most importantly, she does it in a way that serves the songs she writes, which is what I find really exciting about her. I love the art of creating new sounds and recording music in beautiful ways, but nothing beats it when that is done in the service of something higher, be it the elevation of people (like in dance music), or the elevation of person, of someones story, their character.I just want to play this out in a nightclub, thats what comes to mind, somewhere loud with a congregation of people, loud feels important. To hype myself up for this single, earlier on today I listened to ‘In Your Head‘, I had to rewind it 4 times whilst doing a little dance around my room, its so crisp, like this track its grungey but crisp. It just makes sense. She opened her set which that track when I saw her live last year, and I wrote in my review that it made me feel like I believe in Rock again. It feels like remembering Indie gigs without having to listen to Indie music, listening to something which has its essence but is also sharper.Such a memorable, intense hook, so simple yet so poignant. Ive got to the end of the song now so I need to finish my review, and I want to do that without relistening, but thankfully the hook is easy to remember, even if it was played in the background of me doing something else Im sure it would cut through. As with In Your Head, it feels almost like a tv theme, the kind of thing you could listen to and picture the essential issues of Fleabag, perfectly reflecting that shows themes.And of course, it feels like shes here to save us, because even 10 seconds in I could hear that this is clearly lockdown music, put together and directed with thought about this shared experience. Maybe Im wrong, but it just feels spot on, in the same way that Billie Eilishs take on Grunge feels spot on for Trumps America, the bruised emotions of this generation and the bizarre cranking up of speed of these last four years, felt in the heads and hearts of the youth. People who felt we were just building up to our Friends years, that bubble of pre-parenthood freedom, and instead are presented with a world that suddenly seems so clearly run by madmen at all angles.And yet here she is. Shes here to save us.

Written by Will Soer