'My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross' by AHNOHNI and the Johnsons
Many longtime Lou Reed fans weren’t thrilled by The Raven, his meandering 2003 “tribute” to Edgar Allan Poe, but many of those same fans were entranced by a featured cover of Reed’s 1972 song “Perfect Day,” given spectral wings by Antony (last name Hegarty), who sounded like a simultaneously magical and unsettling combination of Jeff Buckley, Björk and Roy Orbison.
In 2016, the album Hopelessness rechristened Antony as ANOHNI, marking her emergence as openly transgender. On My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, she returns to fronting the Johnsons, a studio version of her old band co-led by producer and songwriter Jimmy Hogarth, whose previous credits include work with Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner.
Because ANOHNI’s voice hasn’t really changed, she remains unsettling, magical, and soulful; also, while her partnership with Hogarth is her first truly full collaboration, she delves into it without any perceptible hesitation.
ANOHNI and Hogarth respond intriguingly when they test each other’s capacity for variety: “Go Ahead” is a stark combination of his roughened-up, repeated guitar riffs and her squalling loops and sub-operatic leaps and dips, all of it over in 91 seconds, while “Why Am I Alive Now?” finds her gliding like a jazz balladeer through six minutes of Marvin Gaye-suitable percussion, piano, and strings.
With that musical range, the two cannot be remotely faulted for lack of experimentation or lack of accessibility, and their shared open-mindedness about the music carries over into shared openheartedness about the lyrics, whether they’re softly threatening violence against the most vulnerable target in “Scapegoat” or pleading for global mercy in “It Must Change.”
It’s apt, then, that Hogarth and ANOHNI end the album alone, together, with “You Be Free,” his acoustic guitar and her voice (and backing vocals) casting a spell as tormented and true as a sparse Nick Drake performance. With Hogarth’s help, ANOHNI is free and flying.
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Stream or download My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross on Amazon.
