Anjimile Just Can't Wait To Be King
"My partner tells me that apparently I only sing when I'm happy," says Anjimile Chithambo, who performs and records music mononymously as Anjimile. It's a slightly surprising admission. For one thing, the singer-songwriter's new album, Giver Taker, is full of piercing self-knowledge; it seems like they don't need anyone to explain their musical process to them. For another, the album is the product of some extremely trying situations: Anjimile wrote many of the songs while in treatment for alcoholism and while coming to terms with their identity as a trans and nonbinary person. Still, it's a warm, beautiful album, full of moments of wonder and joy at having emerged on the other side of hardship.
, out Sept. 18, is being billed as their debut album, though Anjimile's previous self-produced releases have steadily earned them attention in Boston, where they're based. Their Tiny Desk Contest entry from 2018 earned them the title of , and GBH named them a in 2019. Thanks in part to a grant from Live Arts Boston, Anjimile hired producers for the first time to record : their bandmate, Justine Bowe, and multi-instrumentalist Gabe Goodman. Anjimile says the trio brought a range of influences — from Bob Dylan to Kate Bush, from Radiohead to India.Arie — into the studio, which refract across the album's nine tracks of introspective indie-folk. On songs like "1978" and "Not Another Word,"
