Anjimile’s heralding his sophomore record with a single of biblical proportions. The folk artist who once called Boston home returns this week (May 23) with a new song called “The King,” an instantly-legendary inferno in its own right. A 10-track album titled The King — Anjimile’s first LP with 4AD — will follow this September.
A palatial tapestry of background vocals encircles Anjimile’s foreboding lyrics on “The King,” as Anjimile recalls the millennia-old tale of King Belshazzar, the Babylonian monarch who appears in The Book of Daniel. As he insinuates Belshazzar’s bloody dethronement, Anjimile interweaves the perilous reality of living as a Black trans person in the United States: “The plague of our year / The Black Death is here / Your silence a stain / The marking of Cain.”
“If Giver Taker was an album of prayers, The King is an album of curses,” Anjimile explains, contrasting the innate gentleness of his debut record with the glowering inhumanity present in his new work.
Tune in below, and preorder The King via 4AD here.
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