ANOHNI is ending a long break from album releases this summer with My Back Was a Bridge for You To Cross, which will come out under the ANOHNI and the Johnsons moniker on July 7 through Secretly Canadian. First single “It Must Change” is out now, accompanied by a video from Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and starring U.K. activist Munroe Bergdorf.
ANOHNI worked on the project with soul producer and Amy Winehouse collaborator Jimmy Hogarth, who drafted a band featuring Leo Abrahams, Chris Vatalaro, Sam Dixon, and string arranger Rob Moose to record the material.
“Many of the recordings on this record — like ʻIt Must Changeʼ and ʻCanʼtʼ — capture the first and only time I have sung those songs through,” says ANOHNI. “Thereʼs a magic when you suddenly place words you have been thinking about for a long time into melody. A neural system awakens. It isnʼt personal and yet is so personal. Things connect and come alive.”
My Back Was a Bridge for You To Cross is the follow-up to 2016’s Hopelessness, and ANOHNI says she has learned in the time since “that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief. I want the work to be useful, to help others move with dignity and resilience through these conversations we are now facing.”
Here is the track list for My Back Was a Bridge for You To Cross:
It Must Change
Go Ahead
Sliver of Ice
Canʼt
Scapegoat
Itʼs My Fault
Rest
There Wasnʼt Enough
Why Am I Alive Now?
You Be Free
