Nisa Shapeshifting LP

In the central scene of Agnès Varda's 1988 "imaginary biopic" film Jane B. par Agnès V., Varda asks Jane Birkin why she never looks at the camera while being photographed. Birkin replies, "It's too personal - Like staring at someone." To which Varda suggests, "Maybe it's a mirror," underscoring just how difficult it can be to truly be at peace with oneself. On her debut album Shapeshifting, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Nisa Lumaj, who records as Nisa, embarks on a journey towards self-acceptance, self-actualization and a coherent sense of identity - the kind that strives for an empowered, prolonged stare in the mirror, rather than a habitually uneasy glance. As a daughter of Albanian immigrants, Nisa grew up listening to traditional folk music, but as a young person living in New York City and studying in London, she eventually became immersed in the world of English-speaking pop music and enamored by artists like Björk, Peter Gabriel and PJ Harvey.

Shapeshifting is a reflection of this interest in forward-thinking sounds - encircled by disorienting processed electronics, chunky guitars, gauzy vocals and unusual melodic choices. With an ear towards the daring boundlessness of experimental pop, the immersive connectivity of club music and the stylish immediacy of rock, Nisa and frequent collaborator Ronnie DiSimone (aka Torna), who produced, mixed and co-engineered Shapeshifting, crafted something transcendent - simultaneously weightless and lush. These sounds are something of a departure for Nisa, whose debut EP Guilt Trip and follow-up Time to Plant Tears, both released in 2021, were buoyed by sparse indie rock and hinged on towering chorus hooks - largely a reflection of the music being made by her New York City peers. Her third EP, 2022's Exaggerated, produced by Water From Your Eyes' Nate Amos and peppered with sharp electronic beats and bubbly synths, marked the first step towards a textured pop palette and a truer encapsulation of her tastes.

The recording process for Shapeshifting began in January 2021 in a small 4x4 room wedged between two auto shops in the industrial Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. On the one hand, she felt physically restless and stuck - strumming a guitar and fiddling with a MIDI sampler in this cold, windowless room - but she also felt that way emotionally. At the time, Nisa had just graduated college and was grappling with the tough decision to seriously pursue music as well as a deeply personal reckoning with identity. Her junior year in London kickstarted the latter quest, introducing her to the idea of transnational identity and providing new experiences, which fed into a newfound sense of self. Though this post-graduation period brought challenges, she also felt her fully realized self coming to the fore - and with it, the ability to finally communicate honestly and access intimacy. So it's only fitting that Shapeshifting opens with the liberating jolt of "Ready…Set!", which Nisa describes as her most "literally this is me" song. "What is this aching in my bones?" Nisa sings tenderly about explosive emotional metamorphosis in the track's final lines, with her voice slowly morphing until it's rendered unrecognizable.

At its core, Shapeshifting is about movement and transformation, and the way self-growth can feel simultaneously exhilarating, disorienting and uncertain. The rest of the tracklist is more abstract - characterized by visceral, urgent images signifying an inner upheaval, like elastic lungs and aching bones, and inspired by the vividly intimate poetry of Sharon Olds and the economical yet affecting lyricism of Tirzah.