After storming the music industry with the global sensation New Soul, also landing her a deal with Apple, the French singer-songwriter Yael Naim has released her newest album Nightsongs. Pouring with calming and dreamy tracks, this album is for anyone wanting to enter her dreams.
Daddy is a perfect song to jump-start this album. The naturistic feel of this tune lays out the building blocks for the other tracks and takes you to her darkest moments. Paired with beautiful instrumentation, the trance-like atmosphere that this song exposes is impossible to ignore and each second is worth all your attention.
It is important, like with any international artist, for them to stick to their roots. Songs like Des Trous, Miettes and How Will I know all show her patriarchy by incorporating her native language, French. A beautiful touch to show appreciation to her country. Despite some not being able to understand the French language, Yael Naim has the ability to project her expressions in both her vocals and song structure so well that you are still able to understand the main body of the song without necessarily understanding her story.
My Sweetheart teases us to a fairy-tale style track with its enchanting aura that surrounds the melody. This track emanates hope as Naim is trying to find a way out of the dark hole she finds herself in. The operatic vocals in this song, like many, sound like a representation of guardian angels looking after her and supporting her through all her tough times, showing that there’s always a reason to carry on.
After focussing on her own hurdles, Watching You focuses on the pain that a loved one is feeling. The simple piano chords allow the honest lyrics to ring out and connect to the listener: ‘I’m watching you go insane, I’m watching you grow in pain” is an extremely strong lyric which naturally touches your heart in so many different ways. The sheer suffering in her voice is almost hard to listen to yet you can’t stop the addiction of the song because it’s too emotionally captivating. A beautiful masterpiece that brings every emotion from the album into one.
Nightsongs is such a stunningly brilliant album that stands out from a lot of the music made today. If you want to delve deeper into Yael Naim’s mind and listen to moving yet elegant songs to bring a calm spirit into your everyday life, then this album is perfect.
Score: 4/5
She is one of the most depressing singers that I have ever heard. She outdoes Sinead O’Connor in the depression category. She is like Michael Franti’s opposite! Why on Earth would anyone want to listen to depressing music? I hope that people that listen to this stuff are going to a good psychotherapist. Don’t listen to this too long or you may end up slitting your wrists!