Talking about the album’s influences and focuses in a press release Anohni said, “I’ve been thinking a lot about Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. That was a really important touchstone in my mind. Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.”

The video for the soulful “It Must Change” was directed by British artists, filmmakers, and frequent collaborators of Nick Cave, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Starring in the video is British transactivist and model Munroe Bergdorf, who glows in the blue nocturnal light as she lip-syncs to Anohni’s sultry cries of “that’s why this is so sad”. Anohni said on the activist in the press release, “Munroe Bergdorf has done so much service for British society. She always impresses me with her articulate grace. Munroe’s dignity and ethical courage are a guiding light”. Watch the video below:

“Beyond excited and nervous to share this with the world”, Anohni wrote on her Instagram prior to the single’s release. “It’s me giving everything I’ve got, stepping out during these crazy times. I want to be helpful and useful in this moment. We need to work collectively and pool our empathy, find ways forward. I am trying to make music that supports your dreaming, your engagement, your sense of connection, your courage, your activism. It’s a feminine dream for all people. Love ANOHNI”.

ANOHNI and The Johnsons’ sixth album will be available in limited edition yellow vinyl online as well as white vinyl from indie retail. Click here to pre-order.

Though the singer was born in Chichester, ANOHNI and The Johnstons (named in tribute to trailblazing trans activist Marsha P. Johnston) formed in New York in 1997. The changing ensemble has featured renowned producers and musicians Jimmy Hogarth and Leo Abrahams.

In 2005, the band’s melancholic chamber pop second LP, I am a Bird Now, which featured legendary artist such as Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart, Joan Wasser, Boy George, and Lou Reed, gathered critical and commercial success, earning the band a mercury prize. In 2016, Anohni became the first openly transgender performer nominated for an Academy Award when she was Best Original Song for “Manta Ray” in the film Racing Extinction.

See the tracklist for My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross below:

01) It Must Change
02) Go Ahead
03) Sliver of Ice
04) Can’t
05) Scapegoat
06) It’s My Fault
07) Rest
08) There Wasn’t Enough
09) Why Am I Alive Now?
10) You Be Free

The release of such sacred artefacts has been taken on by the US record label Light in the Attic, in partnership with Reed’s widow Laurie Anderson. Titled; Words & Music, May 1965, one can expect to hear versions of songs like “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Heroin” with subtle differences in lyrical choices that were yet to be solidified in their ground-breaking 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Yet “Pale Blue Eyes” would change dramatically from its humble origins on this archival record for its arrival in 1969 in their self-titled album. To see a teaser video for what to expect in this rare find, take a look at the video below;

In the liner notes for the record, the US rock music critic Greil Marcus states; “The poverty in these songs – the bathtub-in-the-kitchen you hear in their clumsiness, the fifth-floor-walkup you can hear in their defiance – lets you hear them, now, as chalk on a wall, not the markings that wash away in the next rain but inscriptions that somehow become part of the brick, even if in a year or two no one will be able to read them.”

This latest reissue will feature 100% bonafide originals that never made it to the studio. Such as; “the doo-wop-tinged Too Late, and the R&B track Buzz Buzz Buzz. Another folk-tinged song, Men of Good Fortune, shares a title with a track from Reed’s solo album Berlin but is completely different. Included with some versions of the reissue are unheard Reed songs from home recording sessions in 1963 or 1964, plus doo-wop number Gee Whiz, recorded by Reed in 1958 when he was 16 years old.”

You can hear clips of the new songs via the Light in the Attic website, as well as to assess the numerous buying options available for the LP.