Painless (album)

Painless is the second studio album by English singer Nilüfer Yanya. It was released on 4 March 2022 on ATO Records.^[3]

Painless
Studio album by Nilüfer Yanya
Released	4 March 2022 (2022-03-04)
Studio	Press Play Riverfish
Genre	Indie rock[1] indie pop[2]
Length	46:27
Label	ATO
Producer	Will Archer Jazzi Bobbi Bullion Andrew Sarlo
Nilüfer Yanya chronology
Inside Out (2021) Painless (2022) My Method Actor (2024)
Singles from Painless
"Stabilise" Released: 9 November 2021 "Midnight Sun" Released: 19 January 2022 "Anotherlife" Released: 16 February 2022 "The Dealer" Released: 28 February 2022

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10[4]
Metacritic	83/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
The A.V. Club	A−[7]
Exclaim!	8/10[8]
The Guardian	[2]
The Independent	[9]
The Line of Best Fit	8/10[10]
NME	[11]
Pitchfork	8.4/10[12]
The Telegraph	[13]
Uncut	8/10[14]

Painless was met with widespread acclaim reviews from critics.^[5] Pitchfork designated the album "Best New Music", with writer Laura Snapes opining that "Painless excels at a kind of subtle disclosure, relying less on power than it does texture and immaculately sparing detail."^[12] Chris Taylor of Line of Best Fit wrote, "crunchy, ethereal, and odd in its harsh beauty, Painless is a record of contradictions that Yanya spectacularly weaves together." In a five-star review The Telegraph proclaimed that the album "should rubber stamp Nilüfer Yanya as a generational star".

Publication	List	Rank	Ref.
A.V. Club	The 25 Best Albums of 2022	N/A	[15]
BrooklynVegan	Top 50 Albums of 2022	3	[16]
BrooklynVegan	Indie Basement: Top 40 Albums of 2022	5	[17]
Crack	Best Albums of 2022	40	[18]
Esquire	The 25 Best Albums of 2022	N/A	[19]
Exclaim!	Exclaim!'s 50 Best Albums of 2022	21	[20]
The Forty-Five	Albums of the year 2022	26	[21]
The Independent	The 10 Best Indie Albums of 2022	2	[22]
Gigwise	Gigewise's 51 Best Albums of 2022	15	[23]
Gorilla Vs. Bear	Gorilla Vs Bear's Albums of 2022	12	[24]
NPR	The 50 Best Albums of 2022	30	[25]
ourculture	The 50 Best Albums of 2022	18	[26]
Paste	The 50 Best Albums of 2022	36	[27]
Pitchfork	The 50 Best Albums of 2022	16	[28]
The Ringer	The 33 Best Albums of 2022	32	[29]
Slant Magazine	The 50 Best Albums of 2022	11	[30]
Treble	The 50 Best Albums of 2022	15	[31]
Under the Radar	The 100 Best Albums of 2022	6	[32]
Uproxx	The Best Indie Albums of 2022	N/A	[33]

Track listing

Painless track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"The Dealer"	Nilüfer Yanya Will Archer Jazzi Bobbi	Archer	3:38
2.	"L/R"	Yanya Bullion	Bullion	3:39
3.	"Shameless"	Yanya Archer	Archer	4:34
4.	"Stabilise"	Yanya Archer	Archer	3:32
5.	"Chase Me"	Yanya Archer	Archer	3:30
6.	"Midnight Sun"	Yanya Archer	Archer	4:42
7.	"Trouble"	Yanya Archer	Archer	5:04
8.	"Try"	Yanya Archer	Archer	4:10
9.	"Company"	Yanya Archer	Archer	3:46
10.	"Belong with You"	Yanya Bobbi	Bobbi	2:56
11.	"The Mystic"	Yanya Andrew Sarlo	Sarlo	3:33
12.	"Anotherlife"	Yanya Bullion	Bullion	3:23
Total length:				46:27

Deluxe edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Shameless (Reflects)"	Yanya Archer	Archer	4:37
14.	"Midnight Sun (Reflects)" (Acoustic Version)	Yanya Archer	Archer	4:55
15.	"Chase Me (Reflects)"	Yanya Archer	Archer	3:28
16.	"Midnight Sun" (Sampha Remix)	Yanya Archer	Sampha	4:17
17.	"Midnight Sun" (King Krule Remix)	Yanya Archer	King Krule	5:03
18.	"Rid of Me"	Polly Jean Harvey	Bobbi	3:37
Total length:				72:24

Personnel

Musicians

• Nilüfer Yanya – lead vocals (all tracks), electric guitar (tracks 2, 9), guitars (10–12)
• Will Archer – electric guitar (tracks 1, 3–7, 9), acoustic guitar (1, 3, 6, 8), bass guitar (1, 4, 5, 8), piano (3), backing vocals (5, 8)
• Ellis Dupuy – drums (tracks 1, 4, 6, 10, 11)
• Ben Reed – bass guitar (tracks 2, 3, 12)
• Dom Pusey – clarinet (track 3)
• Jazzi Bobbi – vocals (track 10)

Technical

• Matt Colton – mastering (tracks 1–12, 18)
• Kevin Tuffy – mastering (tracks 13–17)
• Nathan Boddy – mixing (tracks 1–12)
• Will Archer – mixing (tracks 13–16), engineering (1, 3–8), additional engineering (9)
• Tom A.D. Fuller – mixing (track 18)
• Bullion – engineering (tracks 2, 12)
• Joe Dworniak – engineering (track 9), additional engineering (1, 3–8, 11)
• Jazzi Bobbi – engineering (track 10)
• Andrew Sarlo – engineering (track 11)
• Oli Barton Wood – engineering (tracks 13–15)
• Lilian Nuthall – mixing assistance
• Andy Ramsay – additional engineering (tracks 1, 4, 6, 8, 11)
• Dom Kirtley – additional engineering (10)
• M T Hadley – additional vocal engineering (11)

Visuals

• Molly Daniel – photography
• Nilüfer Yanya – photography, album artwork design
• Elif Yanya – paintings
• Lauren Harewood – additional font design

Charts

Chart performance for Painless

Chart (2022)	Peak position
Scottish Albums (OCC)[34]	33
UK Albums (OCC)[35]	86