My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross - Anohni And The Johnsons: Review
ANOHNI
is a British singer-songwriter who formerly fronted the band Antony And The Johnsons for four albums in the 2000s. After turning to her solo career in the 2010s she dropped the massively acclaimed album Hopelessness in 2016. Now 7 years later she is reforming her backing band The Johnsons and releasing a new album, the first officially credited to ANOHNI And The Johnsons.
Review by Lavender:
ANOHNI's 2016 album HOPELESSNESS came out at a pretty substantial time for me as both a music fan and a trans woman. That's why I've long propped the album up as a personal favorite of mine and connected to other artists who channel their protest and anger through sheer dejected defeat. But I've matured a lot since then. Enough to realize that ANOHNI may have an even greater masterpiece in her catalog. The 2005 Antony And The Johnsons album I Am A Bird Now is every bit as beautiful a work of art as I've heard from anyone in the 2000s. This earned respect for ANOHNI's entire career's worth of output meant I was thrilled for a new record before I ever heard a note of any of the singles.
Turns out, ANOHNI has matured a lot in the past 7 years too. What she's re-emerged with is once again a protest album that deals in various social and climate causes. But the raw anger and absolute defeat of her previous album has been replaced. The music on My Back is soulful, the primary inspiration she cited is Marvin Gaye's classic What's Goin On?. That sentiment is mirrored by the lyrics and performance as well, with ANOHNI reframing her approach. All over My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross she imagines the world that could be, that should be but instead of lamenting it as a lost cause, she channels that fury into sheer expectation that we can do better, we must do better. The album is a rallying cry unlike any I've ever heard before. It almost doesn't allow itself to be optimistic, because there's so much blame. And yet it always feels like a light is at the end of the tunnel, and I can't get enough of chasing it.
The album's three singles are about as flawless a platform as you could ask for to start a project off. The lead single is also the opening track It Must Change, one of the best things I've heard all year. It embodies the silky smooth sounds of protest classics like What's Going On? while fully bearing the responsibility of its subject matter. The instrumentation is perfectly composed and focused as is the sentiment which presumes concepts like love will last forever and demands we catch up to its promises. The moments where Anohni's whispering narration overlaps her beautiful repetition of the title phrase are among the best moments I've heard in any new music this year.
The second single Sliver Of Ice has a lyrical motif inspired by something Lou Reed said to Anohni, but the inspiration goes deeper than that. The formatting of the song in a procession of short verses punctuated by increasingly dramatic repetition as a finale feels incredibly Reed-ish. This being the weakest of the three singles will tell you just how good they all are, because this track is absolutely excellent. I've been obsessed with the third single Why Am I Alive Now? since it first dropped a few days before the album. On first listen I thought the song would take on survivor's guilt but what Anohni actually delivers is pure defect in the face of the world's deterioration. While she specifically cites climate examples the track feels like it has a sweeping embarrassment at all the humiliating tragedies we witness every day.
While the album's lyrical content is obviously its greatest appeal, the instrumentals are consistently wonderful too. Can't is a song that sees Anohni confronting the reality of wanting to see a friend who passed away. The instrumentation gets more involved and more present as the track goes on. It reaches a perfectly anguished finale echoing out "I can't, I can't, I can't" in a simple but beautifully performed moment. Rest is the most "rock" flavored that the album gets with these wandering guitar passages between Anohni's soulful calls of wanting "her" to return home. The song consistently flirts with not actually embodying its title but never actually reaches a point of restlessness. That tightrope walk is helped by the methodical build pushing forward into exciting peaks throughout.
Astonishingly, we haven't even reached the lyrical peaks of the record. Scapegoat is a brutal fucking song that sees Anohni taking on an image of the oppressor. She's speaking to someone who is so marginalized that she's comfortable expressing just how subhumanly they're allowed to be treated. The dizzying rush of instrumentation late in the song and long fade out that follows is completely necessary to swallow the weight of the song's subject matter. It's My Fault is a short and somewhat simple song but it absolutely nails the one punch it pulls. Anohni reflects on being part of such a destructive society centered around the repetition of the line "it's my fault, the way I broke the Earth." The lyric will stick with me for a long time.
Some of the moments on the album that didn't necessarily blow me away were when the record allows itself to wander. Go Ahead is the one song that sounds the most like Hopelessness. It has a similar frustration that leads to a rage driven eruption complete with jagged guitar tones. One thing I think could make the song be even more impactful is moving it in the tracklist so the shift in tone is more impactful. My least favorite song on the album is There Wasn't Enough which takes aim at the greed that is deteriorating the earth. It's the most reserved song on the album and also the most dejected. It seems to veer away from some of the album's other persistent social messages and turn to soul instrumentation. It isn't a bad song but it feels fundamentally different from everything else here.
My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross is a brilliant record. Anohni has matured in every sense and the results are nothing short of spectacular. Her lyrical explorations have more nuance than ever which makes breaking down every sentiment of this album wonderful. Anohni consistently says so much with so little all over this album that it becomes a brilliant but never overbearing thematic experience. That's matched perfectly by a series of soulful instrumentals that never feel the need to over-intensify. They perfectly mirror the album's grown reservations while matching its contemplative but inspired direction. This is the best album I've heard in 2023 so far, there's really nothing else I need to say. 9.5/10
For more new music check out my review of Susanne Sundfor's blomi
