Though the four tracks that make up
Dancing Shoes started life in the same writing rooms as Nilufer Yanya’s acclaimed 2024 LP
My Method Actor, they have an identity of their own that already feels evolved. The limber, Radiohead-like quality of Yanya’s melodies is still present, snaking over the sinuous guitars and lyrical seduction of opener
Kneel and into closer
Treason, where a stark tale of lies and loss sits atop a ghostly, wounded backing. Elsewhere, there’s a claustrophobic feeling to the production, where Yanya pushes beats and percussion into intense, gritty ground.
Where to Look’s echoey, industrial drums drag the track to a harsh, uncompromising climax.
Dancing Shoes is more a bleak tango than an exuberant waltz, but its rhythms ensnare the listener either way. —
Lisa Wright The Observer
