The record Björk hailed as “one of the best albums ever”
The mantra of everything Björk has ever stood for is based on the bold, the daring, and the refusal to ever do anything on someone else’s terms.
That marries her, both in a sonic and personality sense, nicely with a band like Anohni and the Johnsons, who have always found something beautifully artistic, subversive, and beguiling to take from what are sometimes the darkest corners of the world. It’s an attribute which has always held them in the highest acclaim, but for a mind so similarly wired as Björk’s, it truly made her soul sing.
It’s testament to this fact that Anohni and Björk have always worked so closely with each other over the course of the former’s career, particularly with collaborative songs like ‘The Dull Flame of Desire’ and ‘My Juvenile’ forming integral pieces of Björk’s album Volta, released in 2007. But the pair have always remained close, feeding the lifeblood of their partnership from all the way back then right up to the present day.
Indeed, while being artistic muses and personal confidants, it’s clear that both of them possess just as much sonic reverence for the other, something vitally important but often left unsaid if true collaborative partnerships are to be forged and then thrive in the music industry. Some may feign embarrassment, but being the biggest fan of your closest peers is the real key to success.
Proving that Anohni and Björk are both kindred spirits and cut from the same sonic cloth, the latter made no hesitation in hailing one of her friend’s albums as among the greatest ever made – and better still, doing it to her face. It was a shared conversation in 2023 that brought the pair’s adoration of each other to the forefront of their focus, and Björk was typically not holding back.
“I truly love your album [My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross],” she told Anonhi. “Your voice has never sounded that phenomenal and free, and you are singing with technique and colours I’ve never heard you do before. A true victory, one of the best albums ever.”
Compliments and humility aside, however, Björk really did have a point in stating her love for Anohni in that particular space and time. My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross had only been released earlier that same year, and it was already making waves in terms of its complete historical and social significance, which will surely see it sealed as an album for the ages.
Leaning on every kind of muse from Marsha P Johnson to climate change and environmentalism, it focused on the notion of taking society and flipping it on its head, all over the course of ten tracks. That might seem a gargantuan task to some, but that level of deftness and depth is simply the Anohni way.
There’s no need to spell out the means by which this intrinsically connects the band and Björk in a chain that will never be broken, because as much as they can both very much forge their own lights, they also co-exist as one beacon for the greater good of music. So long as that friendship stays strong, then somehow everything will be alright.
