Album Review: Giver Taker by Anjimile

While creating a smooth, intimate and honest record, Anjimile explores their rebirth. 

Channeling the moody, calming atmosphere of a late autumn dusk, Boston-based artist Anjimile debuts their new LP, Giver Taker, a soulful, warm and pensive piece that centers around rebirth. Infused with a choir-like angelicness, Anjimile’s gentle intermingling of bold and soft vocals accompany wistful lyricism that beautifully captures who they have become as a trans artist. Out of themes of addiction, self-discovery, loss of faith, and self-acceptance, Anjimile constructs a stunningly earnest album.

With Giver Taker, Anjimile, a trans and nonbinary artist who for years has been a key figure in Boston’s indie folk scene, has made a nationwide name for themself, garnering attention from notable platforms and organizations such as Rolling Stone, NPR, Paste and The Recording Academy. Before their rise, Anjimile was part of the Allston DIY rock scene, and highlighted often on Sound of Boston as their career blossomed. Anjimile featured multiple local Boston musicians from the Hardwick Sessions in the making of Giver Taker.  

Beginning with “Your Tree”, Anjimile is at once self-knowledgeable, hopeful, and reflective throughout the record. Backed by soft harmonizations, the lyrics dovetail with Anjimile’s haunting low tone as they chronicle reincarnation: “ I fell into the water / And the dirt stung my eyes / And I raised them in wonder / Fireflies, nothing dies… / Buried under earth / All our living worth / How I long to be / Blooming from your tree.” It’s a stunning opener; it uses nature and the changing of seasons to symbolize renewal and rebirth: the transition of who the narrator once was and who they are meant to be. 

These themes appear again in “In Your Eyes”. The track profiles a person struggling with their identity, exploring the fear of not being able to live up to others’ expectations or needs. They face their frustrations to a person who does not understand them and who they are: “Tell me, what do you have to say? / Have you always been this way? / I can’t run and I can’t hide / Was my body denied?” 

There’s careful guitar fingerpicking on tracks “1978” and “Not Another Word”. “Not Another Word”, a highlight on the album, is an ethereal look at the loss of faith and childhood. The song’s chorus backs Anjimile’s smooth tone as they reflect on their upbringing and loss of religion: “Lost and I lost and I lost ’til I gave it away / Lost and I lost and I lost my wonder and will to pray / Lost and I lost and I lost ’til I gave it away / Lost and I lost and I lost my wondering will to pray.” Anjimile closes the door on an organization that no longer holds importance nor comfort to them; the track is a farewell. “Not another word from you, I came to say goodbye,” they croon, creating one of the most poignant tracks on the record. Similarly, the theme of spirituality appears in “Maker,” where Anjimile analyzes the relationship between their identity and their religion. 

Anjimile crafts an autobiography with Giver Taker. The album is a raw vessel through which they analyze and reflect on significant change in every aspect of their life, and evoke their rebirth through an explosion of creativity and self-love.