Pitchfork评测ANOHNI/the Johnsons新专My Back Was a Page for You to Cross

After 13 years, Anohni gets the band back together for a soulful and intense record that provides a safe place to grieve nothing less than the destruction of the planet.

13年后，Anohni让乐队重新团结起来，创造了一张深情和热情的唱片，为地球生态环境的恶化提供了一个安全的地方。

In the years since Anohni’s crushing warning of “4 Degrees,” the global temperature has become perilously close to the point of no return. We just experienced what were likely the hottest days in recorded history. That’s to say nothing of the renewed attacks on trans people, as the few political gains made in the community are jeopardized or eroded altogether through voluminous anti-trans legislation across the U.S. and intensifying legal backlash in the UK. When the Academy of Motion Pictures failed to invite Anohni to perform her nominated song about climate change, she posted an open letter, expressing a desire to “maximize her usefulness” as an artist. But it’s hard to do that in an increasingly polarized world that’s as hostile as ever towards people like her.

自Anohni发出“4度”的破坏性警告以来，全球温度已经危险地接近无法挽救的地步。我们刚刚经历了可能是有记录以来最热的日子。更不用说对跨性别者的重新抨击了，由于美国各地大量的反跨性别立法和英国不断加剧的法律反弹，社区中为数不多的政治成果受到了损害或侵蚀。当电影学院未能邀请Anohni表演她提名的关于气候变化的歌曲时，她发布了一封公开信，表达了作为艺术家“最大限度地发挥她有用性”的愿望。但在一个日益两极分化的世界里，很难做到这一点，这个世界对像她这样的人怀有敌意。

So Anohni did what any of us would do: She called her label and said, “I’d like to make a blue-eyed soul record.” It’s an unexpected prompt, but one Anohni hoped would bring out something personal in her voice. She was raised in the South of England on the slick crooning of Boy George and Alison Moyet, artists who mimicked the sound of Black American soul musicians overseas. “I’m just trying to be honest about where my voice… comes from,” Anohni told The Atlantic in response to the complicated history of blue-eyed soul. “And also say ‘thank you,’ because [those voices] saved my life.” She got together with producer Jimmy Hogarth—known for his work with British soul singers like Amy Winehouse and Duffy—and riffed on a decade’s worth of ideas while Hogarth played guitar. She drew on past memories: a meeting with iconic trans activist Marsha P. Johnson shortly before her death, conversations with Lou Reed before his, and her time as a co-founder of the Blacklips performance collective, whose recordings were organized into a compilation earlier this year. My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross—her first album with her band the Johnsons in 13 years—meets this precarious moment with a gritty record that provides a safe place to grieve nothing less than the destruction of the planet. It brings a voice so often described as “otherworldly” back down to Earth.

因此，Anohni做了我们任何人都会做的事情：她打电话给她的唱片公司，说：“我想做一张蓝眼灵魂唱片。”这是一个意想不到的提词，但Anohni希望她的声音能带出一些个人的东西。她在英格兰南部，在Boy George和Alison Moyet的圆滑的吟唱声中长大，这些艺术家模仿了海外美国黑人灵魂音乐家的声音。Anohni在回应蓝眼灵魂的复杂历史时告诉Atlantic唱片，“我只是想说实话，我的声音......来自哪里。”“还要说'谢谢'，因为[那些声音]救了我的命。”她与制作人Jimmy Hogarth（以与Amy Winehouse和Duffy等英国灵魂歌手合作而闻名）聚在一起，并在Hogarth弹吉他时重复了十年前的想法。她借鉴了过去的回忆：与标志性的跨性别活动家Marsha P的会面。Johnson在她去世前不久，在他去世前与Lou Reed的对话，以及她作为Blacklips表演集体联合创始人的时光，她的录音于今年早些时候被组织成汇编。My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross——她与她的乐队the Johnsons合作了13年来的第一张专辑——以坚韧不拔的唱片迎接了这个岌岌可危的时刻，这为哀悼地球的毁灭提供了一个安全的地方。它把一个经常被描述为“超凡脱俗”的声音带回了地球。

The backward-looking sound of My Back Was a Bridge sounds nothing like a Culture Club or Yaz record, though. Instead, it takes thematic and musical inspiration from the Marvin Gaye albums that inspired that subsequent generation of soul singers. If it’s daring to make a blue-eyed soul album in 2023, it’s even more provocative to attempt a modern-day What’s Going On within the trappings of blue-eyed soul. On this record, it’s not so much an attempt to provoke as an earnest exploration of Anohni’s vocal identity. These songs sound organic, often like they were recorded live in the studio with barely any reverb, vocal processing, or production flourishes. Anohni’s voice—and its origin story—is powerful enough to carry them alone.

不过，My Back Was a Bridge回顾过去的声音听起来一点也不像Culture Club或Yaz的唱片。相反，它从Marvin Gaye的专辑中汲取了主题和音乐灵感，这些专辑启发了下一代灵魂歌手。如果敢于在2023年制作一张蓝眼灵魂专辑，那么在蓝眼灵魂的限制中尝试现代的《What's Going On》更具启发性。在这张唱片中，与其说是试图启发，不如说是认真探索Anohni的声音身份。这些歌曲听起来很自然，通常就像在录音室现场录制一样，几乎没有任何混响、人声处理或制作修饰。Anohni的声音——以及它的起源故事——足够强大，可以单独携带它们。

The latest iteration of the Johnsons consists of notable session musicians, including Brian Eno associate Leo Abrahams and drummer Chris Vatalaro. With a band this tight, fleshed out with horns from William Basinski and strings from Rob Moose (whose arrangements most directly recall David Van De Pitte’s laconic lines on What’s Going On), Anohni has room to improvise, stretching her voice in new directions. “It Must Change” and the gospel-adjacent slow burner “Can’t” capture Anonhi’s first vocal takes and actively benefit from that lack of fussiness—there are even some joyous ad-libs on the latter’s outro, in between cries of “I don’t want you to be dead!” For someone so famously meticulous—she’s attuned to the tiniest of changes in her sound mixes—the immediacy is invigorating.

最新的Johnsons（乐队）由著名的会议音乐家组成，包括Brian Eno助理Leo Abrahams和鼓手Chris Vatalaro。Anohni有一个如此协调良好的乐队，用William Basinski的号角和Rob Moose的弦（他的编曲最直接地让人想起David Van De Pitte在《What's Going On》中简洁的台词），Anohni有空间即兴创作，将她的声音延伸到新的方向。“它必须改变”和与福音相邻的慢燃烧器“Can't”抓住了Anonhi的第一个声音，并积极受益于这种缺乏喧坣——在后者的结尾上甚至有一些欢乐的即兴表演，在“我不想让你死！”的喊声之间。对于一个如此一丝不苟的人来说——她适应了混音中微小的变化——这种即时性令人振奋。

The soothing and somewhat uneasy “It Must Change” steadily builds to its final blow: “No one’s getting out of here/That’s why this is so sad.” That line sums up one of the album’s major themes—taking stock of what we’re losing by continuing to exploit the environment. “Go Ahead” essentially dares those in power to fully destroy the world, capped by a lemur-sampling guitar freakout that would make Lou Reed proud. Then Anohni pays him tribute directly on the next song, “Sliver of Ice,” recounting a discussion in which Reed described the novel sensation of chewing ice. Even the simple joys are at stake.

舒缓和有点不安的“It Must Change”稳步发展到最后的打击：“没有人能离开这里/这就是为什么这如此悲伤。”这句台词总结了专辑的主要主题之一——评估我们通过继续利用环境而失去的东西。“Go Ahead”本质上是那些当权者敢于完全摧毁世界，其顶点了一只狐猴采样吉他的怪胎，这会让Lou Reed感到自豪。然后，Anohni直接在下一首歌《Sliver of Ice》中向他致敬，他讲述了Reed在讨论中描述了咀嚼冰的新颖感觉。即使是简单的快乐也岌岌可危。

As on previous records, Anohni eventually turns the gaze upon herself; it’s not necessarily tender, but it’s more compassionate than the way she’d ask herself, “How did I become a virus?” On “It’s My Fault,” she sings, “It’s my fault, the way I broke the Earth,” but leaves room to acknowledge both what she’s losing and her own complicity in its loss: “I ache here, I take here.” Several songs lament the feeling of being too immersed in capitalism to figure out a better path: “Now everything’s gone to the floor/And all I ever want is more.” Even though it’s no one individual’s fault, it’s hard not to internalize the propaganda suggesting otherwise. There aren’t any answers, and for an artist whose most enduring revelations are declarative statements (“I wanna see them burn,” “I’ll grow back like a starfish”), it’s a heavy adjustment.

与之前的记录一样，Anohni最终将目光转向自己；这不一定是温柔的，但它比她问自己“我是如何成为病毒的？”的方式更富有同情心。在《How did I become a virus》中，她唱道：“这是我的错，我打破地球的方式，”但留下了空间来承认她正在失去的东西和她自己在失去它的共谋：“我在这里痛苦，我在这里。”几首歌哀叹这种沉浸在资本主义中的感觉，无法找到一条更好的道路：“现在一切都到地板上了/我只想要更多。”尽管这不是个人的错，但很难不将暗示相反的宣传内化。没有任何答案，对于一个最持久的启示是声明性陈述（“我想看到它们燃烧”，“我会像海星一样长回来”）的艺术家来说，这是一个沉重的调整。

The internal shaming makes the outward rage of “Scapegoat” all the more effective. On a rare song that explicitly, specifically attacks transphobia, Anohni woozily exaggerates her vibrato and steps into the role of her oppressors. Her narrator flips surface-level sentiments of support—“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from”—into the very reasons why someone is “so killable,” softening the blow with a few ironic refrains of “it’s not personal.” The triumphant guitar at the end just rubs it in.

内心的羞辱使“替罪羊”的外在愤怒更加有效。在一首罕见的明确、特别攻击跨性别恐惧症的歌曲中，Anohni突然夸大了她的颤音，并扮演了压迫者的角色。她的叙述者将表面层面的支持情绪——“你是谁或你来自哪里并不重要”——翻转到某人“如此可杀人”的根本原因中，用一些讽刺的“这不是个人”的副歌来软化打击。最后胜利的吉他只是把它揉进去。

How do we move forward from cynicism and devastation? Anohni has talked about the role of burnout in societal collapse, saying to the Atlantic: “All they care about doing is making sure that no one gets themselves together to have a broader conversation about the fact that malevolent figures are making decisions that [operate] like ushers of deaths into all of our communities.” There’s no space for mourning in a society hell-bent on overwork. If, as Anohni declares in the liner notes, “it’s time to feel what is really happening,” there’s not exactly time to feel it. That’s the use case for My Back Was a Bridge: It’s post-protest music, made stronger for refusing to endorse personal solutions to systemic problems.

我们如何从愤世嫉俗和荒废中走出来？Anohni谈到了精品力竭在社会崩溃中的作用，对Atlantic（唱片）说：“他们关心的只是确保没有人聚在一起，就恶毒人物正在做出像我们所有社区的死亡一样做出[运作]的决定进行更广泛的对话。”在一个执着于过度劳累的社会中，没有哀悼的空间。如果，正如Anohni在内页说明中宣称的那样，“是时候感受到底发生了什么了”，那么没有确切的时间去感受它。这就是《My Back Was a Bridge》的用例：这是抗议后的音乐，因拒绝认可系统性问题的个人解决方案而变得更加强大。

The final two track titles, then, act as call and response: Why am I alive now? So you can be free. With this record, Anohni aims to be that bridge for others the way everyone from Boy George to Marsha P. Johnson inspired her. In maintaining the legacy of activist and musical icons, in acknowledging what has and hasn’t changed since Marvin Gaye sang about ecology 50 years ago, there’s space to mourn what’s already lost and a little room for possibility, too. The bridge does not necessarily lead to an idealistic ecofeminism utopia—for that, we may “need another world,” and we probably won’t get one. If the destination of that bridge is just a place to grieve, that’s good enough.

那么，最后两个曲目标题充当了使命感和回应：为什么我现在还活着？所以你可以自由了。有了这张唱片，Anohni的目标是成为从Boy George到Marsha P的每个人的桥梁。约翰逊启发了她。为了保持活动家和音乐偶像的遗产，承认自50年前Marvin Gaye演唱生态以来已经和没有改变的东西，还有空间哀悼已经失去的东西，还有一点可能性的空间。这座桥不一定会导致理想主义的生态女权主义乌托邦——为此，我们可能“需要另一个世界”，我们可能不会得到一个。如果那座桥的目的地只是一个伤心之地，那就足够了。