In the middle of anti-LGBT speeches and North Carolina’s controversial bathroom bill, here comes the record from the artist who represents everything and everyone living outside the box. Anhoni, the artist formerly known by Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons, is someone who lives, thinks, sings and performs beyond the heteronormative matrix. She is the antipode of mainstream. She is remonstrating the status quo. Listening to her new album Hopelessness, you will be encouraged to think about the perils of the society we live in. You will also be challenged to perceive gender, ecology and violence from a different perspective. Hopelessness is already my favorite record of 2016 so let me deconstruct it piece by piece.
The album opener Drone Bomb Me starts with Drone bomb me, Blow me from the mountains, And into the sea. You get the idea of the aspersion that’s going to follow it. Anohni’s eminent and vulnerable vocal is beautifully intertwined with electronic elements. Although she has collaborated with Hercules and Love Affair before on a track called Blind, this is her first full-length excursion to electronic music. For all of those who are not ecologically conscious, 4 Degrees is a perfect treatise. Once you hear I wanna burn the sky, I wanna burn the breeze, I wanna see the animals die in the trees, you will never throw your cigarette on the street.
Anohni castigates NSA and The US government in the song called Watch Me. The ideas of surveillance and voyeurism are related to intimacy here. Her voice singing Watch me watching pornography is probably one of the most epic moments on Hopelessness. The criticism of American society continues on Execution. I am quite sure this is the only place where you will hear that execution is the American dream. Perplexity of Anohni’s anger gets more intricate when she turns the blame on Barrack Obama in a song simply titled Obama. The chorus has an almost ritual vibe with the Anohni shouting Obama’s name. I was a bit creeped out in a positive way.
Why Did You Separate Me From The Earth is one of my favorites from the whole record, not that much because of music as much as because of canny lyrics. I don’t want your future, I’ll never return, I’ll be born into the past, I’m never coming home. Please, Anohni, take me with you. And she did took me home with her, especially on the album closer. On Marrow, Anohni compares the planet with cancerous woman’s body. Her vocal and music are so captivating that I couldn’t unrepeat the track for two days. We are, we are all Americans now serves as the conclusion of the record.
The Earth without Anohni would not be complete. Let’s just hope she will help us maintain the Earth complete. If not, get ready for apocalypse J
