http://static.spin.com/files/2015/12/anohni-640x640.jpghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi0q0O4V5Qs
caps artist's own. I love this new song, in which she sings about wanting to see lemurs burn up and stuff.
― BAN ALCOHOL (wins), Saturday, 5 December 2015 23:51 (nine years ago)
[CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT]
― StanM, Sunday, 6 December 2015 16:01 (nine years ago)
Really strong arrangement and musical performance make her voice somewhat bearable.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 6 December 2015 16:04 (nine years ago)
"drone bomb me" pretty excellent
― tomorrow, Thursday, 10 March 2016 15:32 (nine years ago)
Yeah, this is great. It does make me think I'm listening to When Saints Go Machine though.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 10 March 2016 16:07 (nine years ago)
what a song and video
― art baengels (monotony), Sunday, 13 March 2016 03:42 (nine years ago)
so rad, she's on fire right now, dayum
the relentlessness of the lyrical button-pushing is so fucking thorough
― the tune was space, Sunday, 13 March 2016 04:26 (nine years ago)
i haven't been super taken by much she's done since i am a bird now but yes this is so very good.
also fp stanm, what the hell
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 13 March 2016 04:38 (nine years ago)
Yeah, I know. Sorry.
― StanM, Sunday, 13 March 2016 12:22 (nine years ago)
How do you pronounce Anohni?
Judging by the first couple of songs to have emerged this record could end up being very good indeed.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 13 March 2016 16:54 (nine years ago)
a-NOH-ni
― j. winters (josh), Monday, 14 March 2016 04:33 (nine years ago)
after listening to "drone bomb me" a ton of times, i'm still not remotely tired of it.
― dc, Tuesday, 15 March 2016 18:42 (nine years ago)
The album's out tomorrow!
― StanM, Thursday, 5 May 2016 07:42 (nine years ago)
Gonna see her live at The Armory in a few weeks, pretty psyched.
― ulysses, Thursday, 5 May 2016 14:08 (nine years ago)
is she touring with the Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke guys?
― StanM, Thursday, 5 May 2016 14:52 (nine years ago)
Really excited to hear this tomorrow. Her melodies are so delicate I'm curious to see how they'll stand up to these arrangements.
In the meantime I've been revisiting The Crying Light and remembering how incredible it is. Better than I Am A Bird Now, imo.
― Evan R, Thursday, 5 May 2016 14:56 (nine years ago)
did not know there was a new album coming out, but just listened to "4 Degrees" like six times in a row. kills. will absolutely get this.
― circa1916, Thursday, 5 May 2016 14:58 (nine years ago)
― Evan R
I could never get into The Crying Light in the same way. Another World, Kiss My Name and Aeon are the only songs that come anywhere near to the quality of I Am A Bird Now for me.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 5 May 2016 15:14 (nine years ago)
is she touring with the Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke guys?― StanM, Th
I dunno if she's touring; the concert i'm going to is a red bull music academy show:http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/anohni_hopelessness
― ulysses, Thursday, 5 May 2016 15:25 (nine years ago)
There are shows where "with Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke" is specifically mentioned, but not at the Armory
http://www.secretlycanadian.com/live/#anohni
― StanM, Thursday, 5 May 2016 15:40 (nine years ago)
(specifically? I may have meant "explicitly")
― StanM, Thursday, 5 May 2016 15:42 (nine years ago)
The blurb for the shows at the Armory says: "Featuring original films and a band that includes Oneohtrix Point Never"
― Position Position, Thursday, 5 May 2016 16:57 (nine years ago)
Ha, oddly enough I'm indifferent to those three songs. "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground" and (especially) "Epilepsy Is Dancing" just absolutely gut me, though. God, that "Cut me in quadrants... leave me in the corner" chorus. Unbelievable.
― Evan R, Thursday, 5 May 2016 18:08 (nine years ago)
this is really really good, and i was lukewarm on the singles
― bitcoin bajas (diamonddave85), Thursday, 5 May 2016 20:31 (nine years ago)
I'm still unsure about the directness of the lyrics (it's a protest album and all but still...) but the production is all so fucking gorgeous.
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Friday, 6 May 2016 06:06 (nine years ago)
This album is like the Dreamworks Animation version of the oncoming apocalypse.
― Matt DC, Friday, 6 May 2016 08:25 (nine years ago)
iPhone wants to autocorrect Anohni as 'snog I'. Which is... a thing.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 6 May 2016 08:31 (nine years ago)
for a buzz album abt *issues* this is actually p good
― And the cry rang out all o'er the town / Good Heavens! Tay is down (imago), Friday, 6 May 2016 09:12 (nine years ago)
'i don't love you anymore' is kind of amazing
I was hoping this thread would be about a Hawaiian fish or something. Disappointing.
― how's life, Friday, 6 May 2016 12:41 (nine years ago)
Almost possible, but it wouldn't be on ILM though, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fish_of_Hawaii
― StanM, Friday, 6 May 2016 13:04 (nine years ago)
I am pro-Anohni and I think this album is largely fantastic (especially Crisis, wow), but I think the sumptuousness of her voice works against her at times, especially with lyrical content like this. Phrasing is the thing that turns a great voice into a great singer (and can turn an indifferent or bad voice into a great vocalist), and it's really apparent on here how she phrases almost everything in the same way, something about the emphasis on every syllable. I knew exactly how she was going to sing the phrase "child molesters" before I heard it, and sure enough that was exactly how she sang it.
That shouldn't detract too much from the fact that this album is an astonishing achievement, I can think of very little else quite like it, and abandoning the piano was the best thing she could have done here.
― Matt DC, Friday, 6 May 2016 17:23 (nine years ago)
Loving this album and i agree with your caveats matt.
― ulysses, Friday, 6 May 2016 17:45 (nine years ago)
ive been thinking about the directness of the lyrics which, at first, i thought were pretty cringeworthy. i'm not really a lyrics guy, so 99% of the time lyrics will just pass by me as another instrument or something. what i find interesting about what anohni is doing here is that by speaking directly without much metaphor and using some awkward phrasings, she is demanding i listen to the lyrics consciously. i think this is a pretty successful artistic choice for an overtly political album
― bitcoin bajas (diamonddave85), Friday, 6 May 2016 17:53 (nine years ago)
i know what you mean about "i bet she'll sing 'CHILD MOlesters' like..." and there is some po faced corniness at play here but i think it's earned
― ulysses, Friday, 6 May 2016 17:58 (nine years ago)
this album is fucking fantastic; the back half in particular just soars
― grinding like a jolly elf (jamescobo), Friday, 6 May 2016 23:40 (nine years ago)
great album
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 6 May 2016 23:42 (nine years ago)
can't think of any album from the last twenty years that is simultaneously so musically forward-thinking and explicitly political
― it me, Saturday, 7 May 2016 02:25 (nine years ago)
also the voice absolutely makes this
― it me, Saturday, 7 May 2016 02:30 (nine years ago)
can't think of any album from the last twenty years that is simultaneously so musically forward-thinking and explicitly political― it me, Friday, May 6, 2016 10:25 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― it me, Friday, May 6, 2016 10:25 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
http://cdn.ambrosiaforheads.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/tpab.jpg
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Saturday, 7 May 2016 02:31 (nine years ago)
it's a movement
― it me, Saturday, 7 May 2016 02:35 (nine years ago)
(especially Crisis, wow)
THIS
― grinding like a jolly elf (jamescobo), Sunday, 8 May 2016 00:12 (nine years ago)
This is fucking amazing. I'm drunk and I don't at this stage want to add much more, but I will later. I was a little afraid to listen to this record because it has two of my favourite artists of this century collaborating but. On first listen it's fucking amazing.
― kraudive, Sunday, 8 May 2016 00:35 (nine years ago)
This album is so good. Obama is the only song I'm not totally sold on. Her low vocals are a bit hard to get used to on that one.
I mentioned them earlier in the thread, but I seriously do keep finding myself thinking I'm listening to When Saints Go Machine. This is the album that should have followed Konkylie.
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 8 May 2016 13:27 (nine years ago)
I kinda love "Obama"; it's totally against type and gonzo.
― ulysses, Sunday, 8 May 2016 15:33 (nine years ago)
this album is whoa, and yeah "obama" is amazing
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Monday, 9 May 2016 18:22 (nine years ago)
joining the praise party this is v good and beautiful music, the zero-subtlety lyrics would grate in the wrong context but her voice sells them
― if young slothrop don't trust ya i'm gon' rhyme ya (slothroprhymes), Monday, 9 May 2016 18:28 (nine years ago)
all the RHIIIINOOOOS and all the BIG MAMMAAAAAAAALS
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Monday, 9 May 2016 18:33 (nine years ago)
i've been banging this and the new Quik back to back and they fit better than you might think
― ulysses, Monday, 9 May 2016 18:38 (nine years ago)
can a mod delete that horrendous stanm first response? incredibly unpleasant to look at every time, wtf were you thinking
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Monday, 9 May 2016 18:54 (nine years ago)
ooooooooOOOOOooooooOOOOOObamaaaaaaaa
― ulysses, Monday, 9 May 2016 19:00 (nine years ago)
xp- god yeah that's awful
― de l'asshole (flopson), Monday, 9 May 2016 19:12 (nine years ago)
this is awesome, reminds me of brecht / weill
― map, Monday, 9 May 2016 19:25 (nine years ago)
on the other hand, listening to this back to back with the new James Blake is highlighting how weak that album is.
― ulysses, Monday, 9 May 2016 19:28 (nine years ago)
I now think this album is almost entirely amazing, but that synth that comes in 3:35 into Crisis is just... holy shit.
Does anyone else keep expecting to hear "it's in the trees... It's coming" when that opening drum beat of 4 Degrees hits?
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 10 May 2016 08:03 (nine years ago)
Yes! As soon as I heard it as a preview track that was my first thought.
― Mr. Hathaway. (jed_), Tuesday, 10 May 2016 22:52 (nine years ago)
omg totally
― map, Tuesday, 10 May 2016 22:54 (nine years ago)
― Matt DC,
This moment is my favourite bit of music this year. It's just stunning.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 11 May 2016 17:46 (nine years ago)
oh jeez this is really excellent
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 18:03 (nine years ago)
maybe i'm not reading carefully enough but one thing i failed to get from the writing about this record is how well it functions as pop
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 18:12 (nine years ago)
Really well imo and it's what makes it so exciting.
― ulysses, Wednesday, 11 May 2016 18:12 (nine years ago)
ya i thought it would be way more avant from reading about it
― de l'asshole (flopson), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 20:48 (nine years ago)
it's that quality that really makes the lyrics work
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Wednesday, 11 May 2016 21:17 (nine years ago)
and for me her voice works so so much better the bigger the beats are
I have to confess something: this is an album I seek to consciously avoid. Like, totally.
This isn't because I am a hater, though honestly I've never been sold on her work entirely -- much of the Johnsons work as I heard it was formless and often empty, where the vocal qualities never coalesced into anything memorable. That said, the structure and focus of "Blind" for Hercules and Love Affair demonstrated to me that her efforts CAN work excellently, but need to do so in a certain structure or format, perhaps simply more collaborative. So I'd be open to new approaches because hey, those could be key.
But...I really don't need this album. Not that I don't agree with the political points raised in general from what I can tell. That's the problem and the core, but more than you might think: it's not that I wouldn't be hearing something I already 'know,' even if secondhand or in the context of complicity, however unconscious. But ever since "Four Degrees" emerged, I realized I couldn't follow. Reason being: if I've had the worst, extended morose downturn periods of my life -- and I date these stretches back to 1992 or so, though thankfully I would only count two major moments in all that time -- they've had to do with ecoparanoia, for lack of a better term. When it happens, I am quietly suffering for days, weeks. I find it hard to get my mind on anything else, in the slightest. It is crippling, not to an existential degree, but to an overwhelming one. It is not a pleasant state to be in.
Terming an album Hopelessness and addressing this subject matter in part, if not the whole, is not good for me. It may be beautiful and cathartic and more; if so, I welcome you your pleasure, without restriction. I can't go there. I don't want something that could be, however by chance, stuck in my head. I have enough in there on the subject already. I don't need it soundtracked. It is a bit frustrating as a critic to be in that position, but I accept it. I know myself that much. It would be glib and self-serving to call it the equivalent of a trigger warning for me -- and after all, I am posting here -- but I have found no other way to articulate it, and no other place, but here in this thread.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 May 2016 22:45 (nine years ago)
Thanks for sharing in such detail Ned; that's as reasonable a rationale for avoidance as I could think of.
― ulysses, Thursday, 12 May 2016 00:02 (nine years ago)
I'm a bit slow and I've only just realised what Crisis is really saying and Wow, what a fantastic and beautifully brave artist. She's fantastic. What a soul. I was tearing up a bit there.
Also, yeah on my third hearing of this and there are hooks all over the place. Just brilliant. I can't hear a weak track.
I have to say my vinyl copy sucks though. I'm not sure, with hindsight, exactly why I'd buy this particular record on vinyl but I'm really, really glad it came with a free CD.
― kraudive, Friday, 13 May 2016 16:50 (nine years ago)
this album is leagues beyond what she's done before
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 May 2016 16:52 (nine years ago)
I dunno, I adore very many of the songs on the second Johnsons album as well. And just as important politically probably.
― kraudive, Friday, 13 May 2016 16:58 (nine years ago)
like Ned, I couldn't stand her voice and melodies until "Blind."
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 May 2016 17:02 (nine years ago)
this album is basically the music ive always tried and wanted to create myself.
― 6 god none the richer (m bison), Friday, 13 May 2016 22:42 (nine years ago)
Oh this is Antony! I just realized she changed her name to Anohni now. I thought it was the name of a band. I was just listening to the James Blake album an hour ago and I thought I'd much rather be listening to Antony and the Johnsons instead... no wonder it's been a while since I heard any new releases of her.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 13 May 2016 23:27 (nine years ago)
― kraudive,
I was thinking of picking this up on vinyl soon. What kind of problems are you having with the copy you got?
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 14 May 2016 17:10 (nine years ago)
I'm really glad ppl are into this, I almost never start threads on ilm (or bring any content at all to said board tbh) and was actually kinda bummed by the initial reaction to this thread - not even so much the mildly bigoted joeks at first as the stage yawn that accompanied it + immediate threaddeath. Cause I was so excited by the first single.
re the album's lyrical strategy the reference point I keep coming back to is that planningtorock record from a couple of years ago, which I loved but ppl round here (particularly lex istr) really hated
― a mom shaped pom (wins), Saturday, 14 May 2016 17:31 (nine years ago)
PS I had the exact same thought re hounds of love
― a mom shaped pom (wins), Saturday, 14 May 2016 17:34 (nine years ago)
KP - the vinyl just sounds poor on my system, the peaks of volume are really muffled. I'm thinking however that a new needle I've recently bought may not be the best quality so don't make any decisions on my say. It's an off topic point but I'd have thought £40 for a needle shouldn't be too cheap... I don't know it's been a while since I've bought one, there may have been mad inflation on the cost of the things.
― kraudive, Saturday, 14 May 2016 17:57 (nine years ago)
after listening to this a few more times today, ive decided this album is perfect
― 6 god none the richer (m bison), Sunday, 15 May 2016 05:17 (nine years ago)
'Why Did You Separate Me From The Earth' is so amazing, it's like she's isolated this incredible sweet spot between intense torch song and brazenly head-spinning extended Eric Prydz breakdown and manages to keep in that zone for the entire duration of the song.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 15 May 2016 11:13 (nine years ago)
I didn't really engage with the last couple of A&TJ records and bought tickets for the Barbican show on a whim and in hindsight that was the right decision.
The unusual staging for these events will feature joyous dancing and Anohni performing embodied within a live avatar.
Like, this is intriguing but what does it even mean?
― Matt DC, Sunday, 15 May 2016 11:17 (nine years ago)
Someone will be on stage (as her avatar) instead of her while she sings somewhere (backstage?), is what I read into that (e.g. like how Naomi Campbell was her avatar in the video)
― StanM, Sunday, 15 May 2016 13:29 (nine years ago)
Someone = Gael Rakotondrabe from CocoRosie?http://aatjmb.yuku.com/reply/482/Tour-Hopelessness-2016#reply-482 ?
― StanM, Sunday, 15 May 2016 13:35 (nine years ago)
How are we pronouncing Anohni? Like Anthony without the t (th)?
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 16 May 2016 14:44 (nine years ago)
The "oh" feels like a longer sound than the o in Anthony, imo. Emphasis anOHni instead of ANthony?
― StanM, Monday, 16 May 2016 16:52 (nine years ago)
Same
― a mom shaped pom (wins), Monday, 16 May 2016 16:54 (nine years ago)
So this show was tremendously disappointing for me. It began with lights down and a large video projection of naomi campbell in outtakes from the drone bomb video; nothing dramatic, just campbell in fetish dress dancing in place, camera dollying forward and back. Background music was looped rushes of electronic waves. That went on for around twenty minutes and effectively killed all the goodwill in the room. When that finally ended, lopatin and another knobtwiddler took the stage facing one another and 'Hopelessness' was played through the speakers, pretty clearly with A's recorded vocals. Video screen was a woman's face semi-synched with the lyrics. For the second song Anohni took the stage in a lengthy wizards cloak and a black silk face mask. She was not in strong voice, there were several awkward phrases and slightly throttled notes. Basically that's the way the rest of the show that I saw went: pre-recorded music with a barely emoting figure on center stage singing and large video projections focused on a single woman's face. I left after the fourth number, wandered around and came back to see if anything had changed; one of the projections was A's face and she had pulled a miles davis, now performing with her back to the audience. I bailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/arts/music/anohni-hoplessness-park-avenue-armory.htmlhttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/19/anohni-review-hopelessness-music-lyrics-avant-garde
the bummer was that i find Anohni's music and message surprisingly sharp; an album filled with ideas easily dismissed as naive or arch somehow so well executed as pop that they stand stronger and clearer for it. This level of pretension and facile conceptualism came off as a sub-grad school final project: you never see a real woman's face do you? let's look directly at one! don't be fascinated by me as a trans performer; i don't even exist except as a conduit for the ideas. "challenge your assumptions and perceptions and really LOOK at a woman's face" was not particularly clever or new when abramovic did it, ventriloquizing your politics through a model wasn't fresh when the Freedom 90 video came out. Caveat emptor on anyone attending these shows: they are more gallery show than performance and you may find that you're better off staying home and just listening to the album.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 15:21 (nine years ago)
maybe there was a message here that i'd already received and am too jaded to hear again? maybe there was language so subtle i missed it? when viewing art i'm generally open to the idea that MAYBE I DON'T GET IT but the whole enterprise smelled of too-fashionable hokum to me and that made me very sad. But the album still holds up.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 15:28 (nine years ago)
on the subway ride home i got into a crowd of artsy late middle aged men and women of NY affluence, clasping the album sized programs they grabbed on the way out, each one emblazoned DON'T SHY AWAY on the back in ragged black letters. Some of them had two or three of them, presumably for vision boards or ebaying. I struck up several of them in conversation to ask if they enjoyed the show, what worked for them. Most of the responses i got were sort of lukewarm affirmations of her daring and experimentalism, a love for the obviously political message and a general sense that something complicated was going on that they couldn't quite put their fingers on but wow, she sure was doing something wasn't she? One of them, misunderstanding my questions as those of someone who hadn't been at the show, offered me a copy of the program, jokingly saying "you can say you went!"
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 15:33 (nine years ago)
the bummer was that i find Anohni's music and message surprisingly sharp; an album filled with ideas easily dismissed as naive or arch somehow so well executed as pop that they stand stronger and clearer for it.
yep
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 May 2016 15:40 (nine years ago)
I blame this show last night for the absolutely packed F train in Manhattan, and the never-seen-such-a-mob-before transfer to the J at Delancey Essex. Anyway a lot of people were carrying merch. It got me interested though, so I clicked on this thread and "4 DEGREES" and "Drone Bomb Me" both sound pretty good, thanks y'all.
ha xpost re: transit crowds
― bucyrus ohio, vus cun nus en l’aria (Doctor Casino), Friday, 20 May 2016 15:58 (nine years ago)
xps. the other knob-twiddler is Hudson Mohawke iirc
― the unbearable jimmy smits (jim in glasgow), Friday, 20 May 2016 16:44 (nine years ago)
that's what i thought too but according to the reviews it's Christopher Elms
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:47 (nine years ago)
more reviews:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/anohnis-hopeless-politics-take-over-park-avenue-armory-8639183http://flavorwire.com/576789/the-mask-of-sorrow-anohni-as-the-veiled-grim-reaper
it's telling to me that most of the reviews I've seen talk at length about the concept and execution and bend over backward to justify the staging but no one says whether or not the concert was actually enjoyable or not.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 17:25 (nine years ago)
I was at one of these shows. I don't know if 'enjoyed' is the right word, but on a very base level it felt good to hear this stuff blasted at ear splitting volume. The album lends itself to that. "More gallery show than performance" is right, but I liked that. I don't really know what else she could have done to present these songs, what exactly were you looking for ulysses?
― Position Position, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:04 (nine years ago)
my fav moments on this are the little pockets of bowieish overdubbed vocal scatting
― de l'asshole (flopson), Friday, 20 May 2016 18:15 (nine years ago)
XP to what i would've liked: an opportunity to let the viewer do some of the work to digest the material rather than presenting it in such rigorous terms. live instrumentation would've been very much welcomed. a break in the rigorous funereal procession; just any moment of levity? the music is often quite acerbically funny and that element of it was ignored. the intense self-seriousness of the whole exercise merked my ability to engage.
beyond all that, as i said above, i didn't think she was in particularly good voice. On another (perhaps less defensible) point, there was loads of pre-recorded backing vocals supporting her and it was often about 10% live performance and 90% playing the stuff at ear splitting volume. I'm okay with that when the spectacle is less one note but this committed the deadliest of sins for me as a viewer: it was boring. MOMA's Bjork show was similarly static and suffered from "don't-look-at-me-look-at-me" egoism; if i had seen this at a gallery, i would've walked out sooner.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:22 (nine years ago)
live instrumentation would've been very much welcomed
are any live instruments used in the making of the album? sounds 100% made on a computer to me
any moment of levity? the music is often quite acerbically funny and that element of it was ignored. the intense self-seriousness of the whole exercise merked my ability to engage.
really? what are the moments of levity or humor on the album, iyo? it's pretty dour and self-serious...
― de l'asshole (flopson), Friday, 20 May 2016 18:32 (nine years ago)
Huh, interesting. Yeah, I definitely didn't want any live instrumentation from this, I don't feel that would have worked in the context of the material. I thought the fake/real juxtaposition was kind of good, I liked that she would step away from the mic occasionally and the singing would continue. I like live performance that leaves you a little blurry as to what exactly is being played on stage.
― Position Position, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:45 (nine years ago)
what are the moments of levity or humor on the album, iyo?
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:50 (nine years ago)
I should probably buttress this series of posts with a note clarifying that i'm not accusing anyone who enjoyed her live show of being taken in; the music itself is reason enough to have found something to have enjoyed there. Position, I think your suggestion that you liked the "I am singing / I am not singing" sleight of hand suggests to me that we were definitely seeking different things. I wanted a live show! I've seen Antony live before at piano and it was greatly enjoyable. IMO, all this revelatory rigamarole only served to obfuscate the music. It seemed totally counterproductive; you're preaching to the choir.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:54 (nine years ago)
"don't-look-at-me-look-at-me" egoism;
is it really egoism or insecurity/shyness?
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Friday, 20 May 2016 18:59 (nine years ago)
i think if you sell out two nights at an airplane hangar, you likely can handle being looked at.
i got no issue with choosing to hide within the spotlight; sia and the knife manage that well. the routine of redirection suggesting she was speaking as the voice of these gargantuan, youtube ready monoliths of womanhood felt both disingenuous and lacked the complexity that i felt the music deserved. i didn't sense any connection between the songs and the women on the screen; whatever dramatic narrative intended there was entirely arbitrary.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:04 (nine years ago)
much of the albums is acidly sarcastic and feels perched at the edge of nihilism; the light harp on "execution" with A's joyous intonation of the title feels cleverly funny to me and helps give the sudden downturn of the end of the track real weight. i find "4 Degrees" genuinely funny; it's Nero's suggestion that if we're gonna fuck the planet, let's at least have a good time while we're doing it! "Violent Men" seems drunkenly giddy, even in it's (you should forgive the obvious descriptor) hopelessness. Hell, even "Obama" has some sense of humor in the "So You Want to Write a Fugue" school of allowing the form to dictate the function of the piece; it's so single mindedly dirge-like and clever that i can't help but imagine it delivered with a half-smile.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:50 (17 minutes ago) Permalink
good post. '4 degrees' does make me lol actually ('i wanna burm them, i wanna burn
t h e m
― de l'asshole (flopson), Friday, 20 May 2016 19:11 (nine years ago)
imo ANOHNI's humor and achewood's humor are less disconnected than appearances might suggest.
separate from the above criticisms, here's a thought that i'm surprised i haven't seen anywhere: A has absolutely renounced masculinity but isn't expressly choosing to embrace the physicality of the feminine. It appears A wants to escape the restrictions and presumptions of gender and speak as a unsexed spirit. But she's chosen to premiere this becoming-a-creation onstage supported by two cloaked cis white guys and channeling her voice through a series of women, most of them POC. That seems, on the face of it, wildly problematic, no?
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:20 (nine years ago)
Or am I being thick and that's the point?
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:21 (nine years ago)
not everything has to manifest, foreground or comment on one's gender, even if one is transgender
― sean gramophone, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:37 (nine years ago)
Sure, of course.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 19:58 (nine years ago)
but when the optics of your live performance are so firmly focused on gender or lack thereof, you necessarily leave yourself open to critical scrutiny on that front.though tbh, i'm mostly just kicking the can with that earlier thought. trying to see if I can find something meaningful as a takeaway from the show so's i can grow a bit.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 20:12 (nine years ago)
sorry you are doomed to be stunted and slovenly
― Immediate Follower (NA), Friday, 20 May 2016 20:16 (nine years ago)
shucks
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 20:16 (nine years ago)
I'm not sure what you're arguing other than, "But if she's becoming a woman, why doesn't she look and act like one?"
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 May 2016 20:29 (nine years ago)
not my point. i think i'm arguing that the live show is getting a bit of a pass from cultural critics because of the complexity/thorniness of the issues at play.
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 20:33 (nine years ago)
and because the album's so good!
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 20:34 (nine years ago)
I agree!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 May 2016 20:43 (nine years ago)
Tayyab Amin on "Drone Bomb Me":http://www.factmag.com/2016/03/14/singles-club-anohni-zayn/2/
― etc, Friday, 20 May 2016 21:04 (nine years ago)
otm
― ejemplo (crüt), Friday, 20 May 2016 21:18 (nine years ago)
Rly good point
― 6 god none the richer (m bison), Friday, 20 May 2016 21:30 (nine years ago)
yow, brutal.btw, when did fader start doing singles jukebox?
― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 21:32 (nine years ago)
i thought this song was about romantic desperation the first dozen times i heard it, so i guess that's how clued in i am.
― dc, Friday, 20 May 2016 21:49 (nine years ago)
Huh, imo that's a misread. The song's POV isn't that of a "nonwhite" drone victim, but ANOHNI herself - declaring her complicity, asking for justice. The whole record is centered around her own complicity in unjust systems.
"Crisis" is the one where she seems to try to give a reading of drone victims' hearts and thoughts; Amin's criticism might apply there, but pretty softly.
― sean gramophone, Friday, 20 May 2016 21:53 (nine years ago)
“It’s a love song from the perspective of a girl in Afghanistan, say a 9-year-old girl whose family’s been killed by a drone bomb,” ANOHNI explained to Mac. “She is kind of looking up at the sky and she’s gotten herself to a place where she just wants to be killed by a drone bomb too.”
http://www.spin.com/2016/03/anohni-drone-bomb-me-new-song-annie-mac-hopelessness-naomi-campbell-music-video-stream/
― “Play shuffle board and drink bear!” (seandalai), Friday, 20 May 2016 22:37 (nine years ago)
The song commingles eroticism and terror. I mean -- "Blow me from the mountain"
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 May 2016 22:38 (nine years ago)
For me HOPELESSNESS is at its strongest when it presents as a psychodrama about being a citizen of a Western country that spies on you and kills people in your name, and the kinds of intimacies that come out of that. Putting those thoughts in the mind of a victim on the other side of the world, who is not complicit in the same way, is, well, problematic.
― “Play shuffle board and drink bear!” (seandalai), Friday, 20 May 2016 22:45 (nine years ago)
This is a great headphones record.
― a poon shaped mule (voodoo chili), Saturday, 28 May 2016 23:32 (nine years ago)
Been listening to this a fair bit recently and wanted to add some thoughts, though can't say they are entirely original - mainly as I was reading the comments about the possible dubiousness of 'Drone Bomb Me' and thought they were kind-of simultaneously dead-on and missing the point
To try and drill it down to something, I feel Hopelessness is about (a) the horrors of the modern world (b) the human instinct for and (physical?) desire for drama and chaos and (c) the self-disgust at realising that we as a civilization and her as an individual are complicit in these horrors and in love with the drama of destruction. Of course (a) and (b) are obvious to anyone listening to the LP, but I think that (c) is just as important, if not more so.
So much about the LP seems to be about rubbing our own face in our vomit. For anyone who finds Drone Bomb Me uncomfortable or distateful, that seems to be exactly the point. Anohni is castigating herself for pretending to empathize with this imaginary girl when she and we are responsible for her plight and think we can somehow excuse ourselves by writing songs / comments on message boards - and I think that's reflected in the interviews too.
This applies to the music too, every track (except possibly the end of Crisis) sounds slightly off, not unlistenably so, but just sickly and uncomfortable, there isn't a single moment where I can just sit back and enjoy what I'm hearing.
I don't know if I could ever say I enjoy listening to it, I agree with Ned that it's anxiety-inducing, but I'm glad music with this amount of thought being put into it exists, and I keep coming back to it.
Sorry if this is all obvious, but I wanted to put it down somewhere.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Friday, 9 December 2016 09:55 (eight years ago)
I wanted to love this record.
I was very excited when I heard Anohni was working with Hud Mo because I thought "We're going to get a full record of Anohni being the house diva she was clearly born to be", as we heard on Blind. I was still into it when I heard Four Degrees, but the record itself was disappointing and I think I like the idea of it a lot more than the execution. The problem for me is Anohni as a vocalist: it seems that for so long they've been able to trade on the persona and how superficially perfect their voice is that they've not really had to focus on how they phrase the words or in fact doing anything more than demonstrating "I am emoting because these things are sad". A lot of the record sounds like a musical theatre student being given the task "Do something politically relevant. It's all a bit jazz hands. I hear no ache but it's not because the person singing the songs is too numbed by the horror to ache. The exception is on Violent Men which is the shortest track on it but, to me, the most affecting.
At the same time I love the ambition of the record and I admire what she's trying to do and say.
― Dan.S., Friday, 9 December 2016 11:16 (eight years ago)
this album is deranged and beautiful and amazing. of course drone bomb me is fucked up and appropriative -- that's what gives it its sinister edge; that's what makes you look again at the experience it fails to capture, the monstrosity of abstraction.
― Treeship, Tuesday, 4 April 2017 02:55 (eight years ago)
The new mini-album/EP/whatever Paradise is fantastic, btw.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 4 April 2017 03:46 (eight years ago)
of course drone bomb me is fucked up and appropriative -- that's what gives it its sinister edge; that's what makes you look again at the experience it fails to capture, the monstrosity of abstraction.
Counterpoint: The failure to capture the experience described in interviews is a profound misstep in communication that neuters the point the song is trying to make, leaving it an unthinking, amorphous, callous mess.
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Tuesday, 4 April 2017 14:00 (eight years ago)
yeah i think "callous" is going pretty far off the deep end of that particular ideological argument
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 4 April 2017 16:13 (eight years ago)
When I discovered there was an ANHONI/Cocorosie collaboration, I was not surprised.
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Tuesday, 4 April 2017 16:18 (eight years ago)
Artists are capable of sweeping the gross shit their friends do under the rug when they're united in being more enlightened than everyone else.
(Insert your own quotes around any word(s) in that sentence you wish.)
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 4 April 2017 17:30 (eight years ago)
vocals seem poorly recorded on this
― pre millennial tension (uptown churl), Wednesday, 5 April 2017 01:06 (eight years ago)
https://i.imgur.com/LwyaiWx.jpg
ANOHNI and the JohnsonsIT MUST CHANGEnew single May 16
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Tuesday, 9 May 2023 19:38 (two years ago)
First single out, the full album My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross out on July 7th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2cF9o7FuU4
Credited as ANOHNI and the Johnsons
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Tuesday, 16 May 2023 17:49 (two years ago)
lovely
― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, 16 May 2023 17:55 (two years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KivIZOdQc_c
― bulb after bulb, Sunday, 18 June 2023 13:01 (two years ago)
new album is a triumph
― ivy (BradNelson), Wednesday, 12 July 2023 01:25 (one year ago)
As usual the voice doesn't always gel with the arrangements, but I like how on the good songs she sings as if she's letting you in on a secret.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 July 2023 01:37 (one year ago)
Why Am I Alive Now? is lovely. Tim Buckley vibes.
― fetter, Monday, 17 July 2023 15:31 (one year ago)
Love the new album, the final track brings me to tears every time.
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Monday, 17 July 2023 17:41 (one year ago)
Gorgeous
― Allen (etaeoe), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 03:06 (one year ago)