ANOHNI Makes a Personal and Political Statement With the Masterful ‘Hopelessness’

Matt Matasci

Few albums in recent memory have been able to speak to the soul and enlighten listeners as well as ANOHNI does on her debut album “Hopelessness.” The album peels through the layers of hot-button topics like the growing awareness and gradual acceptance of transgender people in mainstream society, the precarious state of our personal informational security and the cold ruthlessness of remote-controlled drone warfare in blunt but still graceful fashion; and the knowledge that our planet is on the precipice of a climate-driven disaster. The artist confronts vital worldwide issues that other artists have yet to stare in the face so directly, fearlessly exploring a planet and a people that are on the brink of implosion.

To fully understand the story and significance behind “Hopelessness,” it is important to understand the background of ANOHNI. Late in 2015, Antony Hegarty, the mastermind behind well-respected chamber pop group Antony and the Johnsons announced to the world that he would henceforth be referred to as ANOHNI and would be using the preferred gender pronoun “she.” Her debut album under the new moniker, “Hopelessness,” was also announced with co-production from rising electronic stars Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never. From a musical standpoint, it is a jarring departure from records like the chamber masterpiece “I Am a Bird Now.” In place of enormous instrumental arrangements and baroque melodic sensibilities, her debut is self-described as “an electronic record with some sharp teeth.” While this is an appropriate description of the instrumental elements, the lyricism is where the true razor sharp qualities lie.

Delving deep into the devastation, ANOHNI howls powerful statements in an ethereal style, allowing the listener to digest the magnitude of the stories laid out in front of them. She pulls no punches, launching into vivid social commentary on the album’s opener “Drone Bomb Me.” The song is introduced with a twinkling keyboard sound and a pulsating electronic beat before ANOHNI leads off with brutal and ultimately honest lyrics: “Drone bomb me, blow me from the mountain and into the sea, blow me off the mountain, blow my head off, explode my crystal guts.” This first song sets the tone for just how different this album will be musically and lyrically from the artist’s previous work with the Johnsons.

 “4 Degrees,” the first single from “Hopelessness” continues the tour-de-force. With pounding tribal rhythms and the chant of “It’s only four degrees,” the song feels like an anthem for our country’s worst climate change deniers. However, the song, in fact, digs much deeper into the issue revealing the world population’s “insidious complicity.” Written in solidarity with the recent COP21 climate conference in Paris, “4 Degrees” is the perfect showcase for ANOHNI’s total upheaval in sound and style.   

Completing the opening triad is “Watch Me,” an ode to Big Brother. The instrumentals take a back seat to the vocalist’s unmistakable croon as she sings “watch me in my hotel room, watch my outline as I move from city to city, watch me watching pornography.” The intimate track explores our acceptance and even reliance on surveillance cast through a seductive lens. ANOHNI sings “daddy, daddy, I know you love me because you’re always watching me,” blurring the lines of invasion of privacy and voyeurism.

Midway through “Hopelessness,” the dark and subversive “Obama” pulls you in with chants of “when you were elected the world cried for joy, we thought we had empowered the truth telling envoy.” However, it carries the listener into the darkest shadows of our current president’s term. Conversations on invasion of privacy and execution without trial lurk; and where “whistleblowers” like Andrew Snowden describe modern-day martyrs, sacrificing themselves for the greater good. 

“Why Did You Separate me from the Earth” cries out in hopelessness, an emotion that consumes the entire album, this time in reference to one’s god. ANOHNI wails the truth that we are never coming back to what is left of Earth: “I don’t want your future, I’ll never return, I’ll be born into the past” ANOHNI’s voice weeps. “The sea life cut with plastic, a white cross gilded gold” leaves the listener contemplating the clash of man and nature while the final words ask “Why did you separate me from the earth? What did you have to gain?”

The bold, defiant nature of ANOHNI’s “Hopelessness” makes this debut album a powerful force to be reckoned with. On her new journey beyond Antony and the Johnsons, the singer has masterfully created a politically poignant protest album that is sure to be hailed as one of the greatest releases of 2016, perhaps even the decade.

ANOHNI’s “Hopelessness” is available on May 6 from Apple Music.