Anjimile -- You're Free to Go
Quietly revolutionary and subtle, Anjimile's latest album You're Free To Go works its way under your skin and into your awareness, writes Richard Marcus.
You're Free To Go, the new album from the artist Anjimile, is a collection of intimate and evocative songs from an intriguing and captivating singer/songwriter. While musically the album is genre-defying, it mixes elements of folk and electronics to create an atmospheric collage of sound and emotion.
As a cis-gender white male I have as little chance of understanding the life journey of a trans person of color as I do of scaling Everest – and believe me, that's never going to happen. Let's be real, there are certain life experiences where even pretending to understand what another person is going through is both a lie and pretty damn insulting.
However, that doesn't mean there can't be compassion and empathy for an articulately-related experience. On You're Free To Go Anjimile does just that. He sings about everything from relationships to the lack of acceptance for his transition without once trying to manipulate our emotions. There's no -"oh poor me I'm a subjected person" about him. Instead Anjimile’s lyrics are: look, this is how it is, and this is my life. While the music might be somewhat ethereal at times, there is a directness to his lyrics keeping listeners fully grounded in reality.
However, his world isn't all about suffering. He sings about the joys of love and relationships; especially the joy of falling in love or meeting someone new. "I ripen in the heat like wine/eyes narrowed on a new desire/a new desire", he sings in "Rust and Wire." It doesn't matter who you are, it's easy to relate to the feelings and excitement he's expressing in those lines and this song. The feeling of energy coursing through when you meet someone new. The exhilaration when someone becomes your focus and you think of nothing but them. All of these sensations, and more, are captured in this piece.
Anjimile celebrates the joy of intimacy. Which isn't out of place in a song, but taken in the context of a transgender person writing about it makes it almost revolutionary. I think a trans person singing about, let alone having, sex would be enough to give J.K. Rowling a cerebral brain hemorrhage.
This isn’t to make light of the song, or any of Anjimile’s material, but what society takes for granted in the heteronormative world of pop music is still looked upon as outrageous when it's sung about by queers. The more musicians make music celebrating queer sex and relationships the better. As Ezra Furman puts it “when the kind of sex you like is the kind they want to make illegal…” so the more its normalized the better.
Anjimile's strength as a songwriter lies in the subtlety of his lyrics. In the opening song on You're Free To Go, "Exquisite Skeleton," he sings, "I don’t wanna be a son of a bitch/ to you/I’m taking of my dress/I’m shaking off my skin/ Exquisite Skeleton."
If you do something to change yourself, anything, everybody always seems to think they're entitled to an opinion or that's it about them. I'm sure anyone who has transitioned has heard, in one form or another - "how can you do this to me/us?"
Well, as Anjimile says here - I'm not being mean to you as this is not about you - it's about me shaking off who I'm not. It also affirms that under the flesh and the clothes, whomever you are, you're still essentially the same person.
You're Free To Go by Anjimile is a beautiful collection of tonal poems which will make you think and on occasion bring a wry smile to your face. Thoughtful and loving the songs are a wonderful antidote to the strident world we currently live in.
Quietly revolutionary and subtle, You're Free To Go works its way under your skin and into your awareness to give you a better understanding of Anjimile's experiences and reality. This is a great album by an extremely talented artist.
