"Drone Bomb Me" is a song by Anohni, the lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons. It is the first track and second single from her debut solo studio album, ''

Hopelessness Depression is a mental state of low mood and aversion to activity, which affects more than 280 million people of all ages (about 3.5% of the global population). Classified medically as a mental and behavioral disorder, the experience of ...

'', and was released digitally on 9 March 2016 on Rough Trade Records.

Background and release

The song was premiered on Annie Mac's

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

show, where Annie named it her "Hottest Record in the World" for 9 March 2016. On the subject of the song's meaning, Anohni said:

Music video

The music video for "Drone Bomb Me" was released on 9 March 2016 and features British supermodel

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...

. The video was directed by

Nabil Elderkin Nabil Elderkin is an American-born Australian film and music video director and photographer, who is of Iranian and American descent. He is mononymously credited as Nabil in his videos. Elderkin has directed videos for musical artists such as: ...

and art-directed by

Givenchy Givenchy (, ) is a French luxury fashion and perfume house. It hosts the brand of haute couture and ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics of Parfums Givenchy. The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de ...

Riccardo Tisci Riccardo Tisci (; born 1974) is an Italian fashion designer. He studied in Italy at the Design Istituto d’Arte Applicata in Cantù until the age of 17, and then graduated from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1999. In ...

. Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'', Brittany Spanos described video, "The clip stars supermodel Naomi Campbell, who spends most of the video sitting in a chair lip-synching to the electronic track. Her face is covered in tears as she delivers the song, and interspersed between those moments, male dancers are menacingly contorting their bodies and an upright Campbell is posing seductively."

Critical reception

"Drone Bomb Me" received very positive reviews from contemporary music critics. The song was chosen upon release as

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

's "Best New Track". Nina Mashurova stated that, "As with " 4 Degrees," which personified the hypocrisy behind climate change, ANOHNI is not letting anyone off the hook. 'Blow me from the mountain and into the sea,' she croons over a major synth drop. Her voice, and the production by

Hudson Mohawke Ross Matthew Birchard (born 11 February 1986), better known by the stage name Hudson Mohawke, is a Scottish-American producer, composer, and DJ from Glasgow. He is known for his influential work in 21st century hip-hop and electronic music. A ...

and

Oneohtrix Point Never Daniel Lopatin (born July 25, 1982), best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer and songwriter. His music has experimented with tropes from various music genres and eras, s ...

, are both darkly seductive, implicating the listener as they trace the war all the way home to the body. Writing in the language of unrequited love with pleas like 'I want to be the apple of your eye' and 'let me be the one that you choose tonight,' ANOHNI turns the abstracted, faceless nature of drone warfare into something chillingly intimate." ''

'' named "Drone Bomb Me" one of the 30 best songs of the first half of 2016: "Anohni has made one of the year's most challenging and exhilarating LPs with ''Hopelessness'', using avant-club-pop to explore the dark side of American politics and foreign policy the way others singers might explore doomed romance. On this incredible ballad, she plays a young Afghani girl whose parents have been killed by a U.S. drone strike, praying for the same fate herself like a tragic supplicant." '' Billboard'' ranked "Drone Bomb Me" at number 79 on their "Billboard's 100 Best Pop Songs of 2016: Critics' Picks" list, commenting “You know that thing where you're so guilty about your implicit culpability in a

military–industrial complex The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...

that indiscriminately kills innocent people by remote that you almost wish you yourself were dead? No? Well, you will after listening to Anohni's shimmering, gorgeous electro-pop masterpiece, which finds brand-new levels of beauty in socio-political awareness.” In the annual ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abs ...

mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Drone Bomb Me" was ranked at number 15, tied with Beyoncé's " Sorry" and Drake's "

One Dance "One Dance" is a song by Canadian rapper and singer Drake from his fourth studio album '' Views'' (2016). It features guest vocals from Nigerian afrobeats artist WizKid and British singer Kyla. The artists co-wrote the dancehall and afrobeats so ...

". ''

'' listed "Drone Bomb Me" on their ranking of the 100 best songs of 2016 at number 6, and in 2019 ranked the song at number 22 on its list of the 200 Best Songs of the 2010s.

Cover versions

Bring Me the Horizon Bring Me the Horizon (often abbreviated as BMTH) are a British Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 2004. The group consists of lead vocalist Oliver Sykes, guitarist Lee Malia, bassist Matt Kean, drummer Matt Nicholls and keyboardis ...

covered the song as part of their

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

singles EP.BMTH
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Track listing

References

External links

Drone Bomb Me
on

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

{{authority control 2016 singles 2016 songs Rough Trade Records singles Anohni songs Music videos directed by Nabil Elderkin Songs written by Anohni Songs written by Hudson Mohawke