It’s a slyly ironic title for a playlist, but Anohni is a sly woman. She got her start as a he with Antony and the Johnsons, whose signature elegiac chamber pop anchored a voice both soaring and fragile. There’s plenty that could’ve gone wrong on her debut solo album, 2016’s HOPELESSNESS; the production came courtesy of cubist synth maven Oneohtrix Point Never and trap king Hudson Mohawke, and the themes were overtly political. Lead single “Drone Bomb Me” was, in her words, “a love song from the perspective of a girl in Afghanistan...a 9-year-old girl whose family’s been killed by a drone bomb.” It worked on a visceral sonic level and in a deeper emotional and political sense. This Spotify playlist traces the inspirations for this weird, brilliant record. From the gothic folk of Buffy Sainte-Marie to the chilly high-concept hijinks of Laurie Anderson, Anohni’s eclecticism is on full display.
