Anjimile (full name Anjimile Chithambo) earned some buzz locally in Massachusetts for their Tiny Desk Contest entry in 2018, and now they are ready for the national stage. Anjimile has a new album, Giver Taker, on the way this fall, and today, they’ve released a new preview of it, “Baby No More.”
Anjimile says the groove-driven single is about unsuccessfully trying to maintain a relationship while dealing with personal demons:
“I wrote ‘Baby No More’ about a month or two before I got sober. I was in a romantic relationship but I was not taking care of myself in any sense of the phrase, and thus, the relationship was suffering as a result. At the time I quite literally felt like I was losing my mind vis-a-vis alcoholism: ‘I can’t be your baby no more/ cause I done gone crazy’. Active alcoholism and committed romantic relationships generally do not mix well, and ‘Baby No More’ is more or less what happens when you’re not a good boyfriend. Although it’s got a very groovy and relatively light-hearted musical vibe, some of the lyrics are quite dark.”
They also say the album was written while in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, and during the process of “living more fully as a nonbinary trans person.” They said, “A lot of the album was written when I was literally in the process of improving my mental health, so there’s a lot of hopefulness and wonder at the fact that I was able to survive. Not only survive but restart my life and work towards becoming the person I was meant to be.”
Listen to “Baby No More” above, and find the Giver Taker art and tracklist below.
1. “Your Tree”
2. “Baby No More”
3. “In Your Eyes”
4. “1978”
5. “Not Another Word”
6. “Maker”
7. “Ndimakukonda”
8. “Giver Taker”
9. “To Meet You There”
Giver Taker is out 9/18 via Father/Daughter Records. Pre-order it here.