My Method Actor is the third album from London-born singer-songwriter and musician, Nilüfer Yanya. In addition to being a vocalist, she’s a guitarist and keyboardist as well. I’m going into this album as someone who hasn’t listened to her music before, but I’m a big fan of the genres she performs, which are indie and alternative rock. Here are my thoughts.

     The album starts off promising enough, with the first track, “Keep On Dancing,” which has an acoustic sound to it, as does the second track, “Like I Say (I runaway).” There’s these unique elements of Middle Eastern music instrumentally, and when the fuzzy distortion comes in on both these tracks, it adds another layer of complexity that makes the tracks stand out. “Method Actor,” features what sounds like a Fender Rhodes keyboard, and I really like the guitar riffs featured on it. The whole record is incredibly well composed instrumentally, and the production is top notch. I like the melancholy vibe of the album, and when I listen to it, it makes me remember all the times that I was homesick when I was away from my hometown. “Binding,” is a track that has a very gloomy vibe to it, and it’s quite the long song at over 5 minutes. Lyrically, I like the track’s image of a unpleasant road journey, and I like the reverbed, underwater-sounding guitars. “Mutations,” is another favorite of mine, especially with the dreary guitars, and mournful violins. Another track I’d like to highlight is “Faith’s Late.” Outside of that though, I feel like a lot of the tracks don’t really stand out that much to me. Nilüfer is a solid singer, and a very talented musician, but this album just feels good, not great for me. The first half is much stronger than the second half, and I was expecting the sound of this album to pick up a bit, but the strong point of this album is also its undoing, as the slow, gloomy production throughout the album, just doesn’t feel like an alternative rock or indie rock album to me, and that’s what I was looking forward to when I first discovered this artist. It’s not a terrible album by any means, but I had higher expectations going into it.

Overall Score: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: “Keep On Dancing,” “Like I Say (I runaway),” “Method Actor,” “Binding,” “Mutations,” “Faith’s Late,”

Least Favorite Tracks: “Ready for Sun (touch),” “Call It Love,”

Listen: https://youtu.be/HkfbnFyZpok?si=Z9hox-1b_m6lt1wx

Genres: Indie Rock/Alternative Rock/Art Rock