My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross

The album is the band's first since 2010's Swanlights, and Anohni's first since her 2017 EP Paradise. Anohni and producer Jimmy Hogarth's original points of reference were jazz singers Nina Simone and Jimmy Scott. The two began working together in 2022, piecing together demos based on the former's lyrics, with Anohni playing piano and Hogarth playing guitar. They would immediately record those demos as soon as they were finished, getting through three or four songs a day across two weeks, with the record mostly finished after that. Later, Hogarth brought together a studio band including Leo Abrahams, Chris Vatalaro, Samuel Dixon, and Rob Moose who provided string arrangements. Many of the vocal recordings on the album were Anohni's first takes. == Themes ==

The album covers a variety of topics, including prejudice within the context of a broader societal upheaval on "It Must Change" and environmentalism on "There Wasn't Enough". "Sliver of Ice" was inspired by a conversation Anohni had with Lou Reed weeks before he died in 2013, with lyrics pulled directly from things he said about an ice cube in his mouth and his realization of the beauty of cold water. Marsha P. Johnson was Anohni's muse for the album. Anohni, then studying experimental theatre at New York University, met Johnson in the summer of 1992, just six days before Johnson was found dead in the Hudson River. Anohni has regarded Johnson as a "spiritual guide", named her band after Johnson, and has written about her before on songs such as "River of Sorrow" from the Johnsons' self-titled debut album. == Release ==

The album was first teased on May 9 when Anohni posted a photo of two billboards in Camden Town to her Instagram page. "It Must Change" was released on May 16 with a music video directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and starring Munroe Bergdorf. taken by Alvin Baltrop. The third, "Why Am I Alive Now?", was released on July 5, with a music video directed by Hunter Schafer. A music video for "Scapegoat" was released on October 5, directed by Anohni's sister Sara Hegarty. == Critical reception ==

Charles Lyons-Burt of Slant Magazine found that the album includes "some of Anohni's most laidback and unfussy arrangements to date" and "marked by minimalist, sometimes gloomy guitar strumming" but called it a "pity, then, that so much of the music on My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross underserves her anguished storytelling". Joe Muggs of The Arts Desk concluded that the album "does feel like an artist continuing to inhabit themselves in a very thought-through way", which makes its sound "genuinely a bold choice, in the same way the electronics of its predecessor were. A tough listen, but an impressive move". John Amen of Beats Per Minute wrote that the album, "shows Anohni pivoting between stunningly direct and entrancingly oblique manifestos. A listener is left voyeuristically spellbound, striving to reconcile what they've encountered with the life they're currently living." Year-end lists == Track listing ==

Anohni and the Johnsons • Anohni – vocals (all), piano (5, 8) • Leo Abrahams – guitar (1, 3, 5, 6) • Samuel Dixon – bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 6) • Jimmy Hogarth – guitar, production, mixing • Rob Moose – strings (1, 3–6, 9) • Chris Vatalaro – drums (1, 3, 5, 6) Additional contributors • Greg Calbi – mastering • Martin Slattery – percussion (1, 4, 6, 9), clarinet (2, 3, 5), piano (5), keyboards (7) • William Basinski – saxophone (4) == Charts ==