A breathtaking, beautiful, powerful, intimate fifth album by the American experimental folk singer Anjimile Chithambo whose rich, rangey, deep and high voice has an alluring androgyny, somewhere between Nina Simone and Sufjan Stevens. Anjimile self-describes as “queer/trans/boy king” and uses both they/them and he/him pronouns and is his first full-length since 2020’s breakthrough Giver Taker. The opener title track opens with mesmeric, intertwining choir vocalisations before Anjimile’s lead and an unexpected electronica of fast arpeggios, reminiscent of Philip Glass, growing into a frenzied, dark acceleration with the lyrics: “What don ’t kill you almost killed you// What don’t fill you//pains you// drains you.” Like his last album, there’s a channelling of phrases from Old Testament, but this one more of curses rather than blessings, fire-and-brimstone vengeance language of apocalyptica, reflecting on a culture of modern racism, citing the story of King Belshazzar and Daniel in a stinging indictment of American white supremacy. “Your silence a stain/The marking of Cain,” and “Judge and Genesis/Make an end of this,” of the painfully passionate number Genesis, referring to the death of George Floyd with counterpointing piano and angular electric guitar. But there is also much gentleness here as as well as seething ire, and for the most part this is an acoustic guitar-and-voice album, but still with a menacing, simmering, tear-jerking emotion. Other standouts include Animal, Father, Mother, Black Hole, and Harley. But even at just 33 minutes, there is a lot to unpack all 10 very powerful tracks. One of the best of the year. Out on 4AD.
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