ANOHNI has announced My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, the first studio album under her ANOHNI and the Johnsons moniker in more than a decade. The LP is out July 7th via Secretly Canadian and Rough Trade, and features the lead single, “It Must Change.”
In a press release, ANOHNI explained that Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On was “a really important touchstone” while creating the new album, adding, “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.”
ANOHNI began working on My Back Was a Bridge with soul producer Jimmy Hogarth (Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Tina Turner) in 2022, when they created a series of demos together before assembling a studio band including Leo Abrahams, Chris Vatalaro, Sam Dixon, and string arranger Rob Moose to record the project. Pre-orders are ongoing.
“I want the record to be useful,” ANOHNI said about the album. “I learned with HOPELESSNESS 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.”
On “It Must Change,” ANOHNI does exactly that while passionately addressing topics like the collapse of society — albeit with a sense of compassion — over soulful guitar and gorgeous strings. “The truth is I always thought you were beautiful in your own way,” she sings. “That’s why this is so sad.”
The accompanying music video stars British social justice activist Munroe Bergdorf and was directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Watch it below.
My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross follows ANOHNI’s 2016 solo debut album Hopelessness and an EP titled Paradise that dropped the following year. More recently, she collaborated with Bryce Dessner and the Australian String Quartet for a new string arrangement of “Another World,” which she originally released with the Johnsons in 2008.
My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross Artwork:
My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross Tracklist:
01. It Must Change
02. Go Ahead
03. Sliver of Ice
04. Can’t
05. Scapegoat
06. It’s My Fault
07. Rest
08. There Wasn’t Enough
09. Why Am I Alive Now?
10. You Be Free
