Review

You know the story by now: in 2005, Antony and the Johnsons emerged with their second album I Am A Bird Now, a record of such devastating emotional force and singular beauty that its eventual scooping of the Mercury Music Prize was none-more-deserved. Indeed, comparisons to legendary artists – the likes of Nina Simone included – were in this instance not so much hyperbolic as right on the money. The years between that album and The Crying Light have seen him appear to show-stopping effect on the works of Björk and Hercules & Love Affair, his third arriving amid the kind of fervour and excitement reserved for the very biggest of big hitters.

Much like the preceding, Light is predominantly mournful in tone, the languid pacing and arrangements (provided by composer Nico Muhly) gently propelling Hegarty’s astonishing (still, astonishing) voice towards ends unforgettable. Where he previously explored matters corporeal – skilfully blurring notions of gender and transformation – here his concerns rest with the world surrounding: stark record centrepiece ‘Another World’ sees him movingly lament the damage we wreak on our environment. Though perhaps not quite the match of its predecessor, this remains a magnificent, inordinately graceful album, from a star as unique as he is essential. James Skinner

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DOWNLOAD: ‘ANOTHER WORLD’, ‘EPILEPSY IS DANCING, ‘AEON’.
FOR FANS OF: NINA SIMONE, JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN, RUFUS WAINWRIGHT.

Posted on: 27th January 2010

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