After releasing eight albums with the chamber pop ensemble Antony and the Johnsons over the past two decades, Antony Hegarty embraced her identity as a transgender woman and took on the stage name of Anohni. This personal metamorphosis was accompanied by a sonic transformation, culminating in the release of Hopelessness (2016): a highly ambitious record co-produced with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never – which aimed to utilize the electronic dance anthem as a vehicle for visceral political protest.
Anohni’s brand of ‘woke pop’ is the antithesis of easy listening, even if the energetic electronic production are conducive for some cathartic, transcendent dance moves: “Rage is a really fun place to dance from — expressions of anger sublimated into something beautiful are invigorating, especially if you feel like you’re telling the truth” (Anohni, Pitchfork).
Hopelessness presents a daunting inventory of contemporary phenomena that can make one hopelessly pessimistic about the future: capital punishment, torture, ecocide, the imprisonment of Chelsea Manning for violating the Espionage Act in 2013, government surveillance, the false promises of the Obama administration, global warming, and drone warfare. Instead of offering hedonistic escapism, EDM becomes a vehicle to address the thorny complexities of complicity. The issue of drone warfare, for example, recurs in two separate tracks.
"Drone Bomb Me" uses Anohni’s mournful vocals to evoke the perspective of a seven-year old Afghan girl whose entire family has been killed by a drone bomb. Bereft of a family and a future, she implores for annihilation:
'Drone bomb meBlow me from the mountainsAnd into the seaBlow me from the side of the mountainBlow my head offExplode my crystal gutsLay my purple on the grass'
Lyrics: Genius
“Crisis” makes a radical attempt to atone for all the crimes of a militarized world superpower. Anohni asks a series of difficult questions, all of which the average music listener might prefer to unhear:
'CrisisIf I killed your motherWith a drone bombHow would you feel?
FatherIf I killed your childrenWith a drone bombHow would you feel?
CrisisIf I tortured your brotherIn GuantanamoI’m sorry'
Lyrics:
The lyrics offer no answers and no easy transcendence – the songs crescendos into a profusion of apologies and melodious sobbing. Anohni channels anger, pain, guilt, turmoil, loss, empathy, despair and hope, carving out a middle space between being convinced of the irreversible hopelessness of it all and being poised to be a clear-eyed and effective agent of positive change:
“The idea was to model an examination of my own complicity. And honestly not to indulge guilt and shame and hopelessness, but to start to confront that chasm of denial that is preventing me from being able to change my trajectory."
Anohni, NPR
Both music videos feature emotive closeups (a technique made iconic by Sinead O’Connor) to shock the audience out of apathy, disconnect, solipsism and abstraction – and to feel. The answers, solutions and the path forward may (or may not) emerge later.
Despite some of the album’s shortcomings, Hopelessness is a remarkable transition point in Anohni’s career. 2016 saw her becoming the second openly transgender person nominated for an Academy Award (Best Original Song for the song "Manta Ray" in the film Racing Extinction) and another nomination for the Mercury Music Prize (which she won in 2005 for her second album I Am a Bird Now). Anohni may not have perfected the art of political protest pop just yet, which makes me all the more excited for her next effort.
