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May 16, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Nomi Ruiz

ANOHNI has announced a new album with ANOHNI and the Johnsons, My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross, and shared its first single, “It Must Change,” via a music video. My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross is due out July 7 via Secretly Canadian and Rough Trade. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard directed the “It Must Change” video, which stars Munroe Bergdorf. Watch it below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the artwork for the single.

My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross is ANOHNI’s first album since 2016’s HOPELESSNESS and the first album to bear the Johnsons name since 2010’s Swanlights (released under the Antony and the Johnsons moniker). ANOHNI, who was born in the UK but is based in New York City, teamed with soul producer Jimmy Hogarth (Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Tina Turner) for My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross. They then assembled a backing band consisting of Leo Abrahams, Chris Vatalaro, Sam Dixon, and string arranger Rob Moose.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. That was a really important touchstone in my mind,” says ANOHNI in a press release. “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.”

A lot of the songs on the album are first vocal takes. ANOHNI explains: “Many of the recordings on this record—like ‘It Must Change’ and ‘Can’t’—capture the first and only time I have sung those songs through. There’s a magic when you suddenly place words you have been thinking about for a long time into melody. A neural system awakens. It isn’t personal and yet is so personal. Things connect and come alive.”

The “It Must Change” video features British social justice activist Munroe Bergdorf. “Munroe Bergdorf has done so much service for British society,” ANOHNI says. “She always impresses me with her articulate grace. Munroe’s dignity and ethical courage are a guiding light.”

Summing up the album, ANOHNI says: “I want the record to be useful. 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.”

The album’s cover artwork features a 1970s portrait of human rights activist Marsha P. Johnson, taken by Alvin Baltrop.

My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross Tracklist:

1. It Must Change
2. Go Ahead
3. Sliver Of Ice
4. Can’t
5. Scapegoat
6. It’s My Fault
7. Rest
8. There Wasn’t Enough
9. Why Am I Alive Now?
10. You Be Free

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