Last month, Boston-based musician Anjimile announced his new album The King and released the title track. He’s back today with the new single “Father.”
“I wrote this song with my parents in mind as a sort of gesture of appreciation and love for everything they did to try and support me before, during, and after I went to rehab and got sober in early 2016,” Anjimile said in a press release. “Thanks, mom and dad.”
The song is a gentle ballad with the texture of a hymn: “Are you still drinking? / What were you thinking? / On my heart, weighing / I am still praying,” he lulls over delicate strumming.
The King follows 2020’s powerful Giver/Taker. Since then, he shared the one-off song “Stranger,” about which he said, “‘Stranger’ is something of a confrontation between my past and present selves in relationship to my trans identity. I started testosterone about 3 or 4 years ago, and it’s been simultaneously liberating and alarming to note the changes to my mind and body over the years. ‘Stranger’ is an admission to myself that, while I welcome all of those changes — especially the deepening effect of testosterone on my singing and speaking voice — it’s still scary and there is a degree of internal ambivalence to my transition.”
Listen to “Father” above.
The King is out 9/8 via 4AD. Find more information here.