Sharing her first release of the year British artist Nilüfer Yanya clings to time on her soul-surging new single “Like I Say (I runaway).” The track also serves as the first fruit of her recent signing with Ninja Tune, a breath of revitalized and urgent life that promises the arrival of more music from the rising singer/songwriter.
At its core “Like I Say (I runaway)” finds Yanya wrestling turbulently with the immutable realities of time: from its fleeting nature to our powerlessness to stop its persistent passage. The result is a song that poignantly acknowledges and accepts how immensely precious this constantly receding commodity of life truly is. “It’s about how you choose to spend your time,” she explained. “Time is like a currency, every moment. You’re never going to get it back. It’s quite an overwhelming thing to realize.”
Written alongside her partner Wilma Archer, whom she also worked with on albums Miss Universe and PAINLESS, the song threads the importance of having people in your life who fill you with the sense that time with them is time well-spent. Sometimes that means asking hard questions about the sincerity and future of relationships with friends and lovers alike. “I’m tearing up inside,” she sings against the dually yearning and stirring rumble of guitars. “And I can’t stop you leaving / Is the biggest fear of mine.”
Both its lyricism and accompanying music video — directed by Yanya’s sister Molly Daniel — try to reconcile the daunting facts of time by choosing to spend it with the people they love. True to those themes, the film follows Yanya as she plays the part of a runaway bride. Escaping from the altar of a picturesque rural church, the camera follows her sprint through the gloomy countryside, propelled by the song’s billowing reminders that time is fading fast.
Guided by the buoyant but robust rhythms that gently gallop across “Like I Say (I runaway),” Yanya issues a pressing affirmation that it’s far more beneficial in the long run to leave behind the things or people we might wastefully settle for — no matter how heartbreaking that choice may be. Her gentle words assure us that our time is better spent breathlessly chasing and searching for that which makes life worth living.
Words: Steven Ward
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Watch the music video for “Like I Say (I runaway)” the new single from Nilüfer Yanya below!
