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Album Details

• Artist: Antony and the Johnsons
• Album: I Am A Bird Now
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: bbuckingham on 2005-05-04

Every so often, an album comes along that completely confounds your capacity as a music listener. "I Am A Bird Now", the sophomore release by Antony and The Johnsons, is one of those albums.
Antony, an androgynous New York singer with a voice comparable to Nina Simone, exhibits profound soul. No histrionics or vocal acrobatics, just pure heart and soul. On "I Am A Bird Now" Antony and The Johnsons deliver the modern spiritual - the gospel of redemption and strength in the face of death and the distilation of knowing life is now, and now is the only time to live. .
On the album opener "Hope There's Someone," Antony has the rare gift of transcending the personal and connecting to the universal. Elsewhere, on "For Today I Am A Boy," that same torch ballad eloquence is soaked in an ambiguity that makes the simplest of songs unfold to reveal countless meanings. .
A testament to Antony is his ability to overshadow vocal guests like Boy George, Rufus Wainright and Devendra Banhart. Lou Reed, a vocal proponent of the band, lends a spoken intro and rhythm guitar to the slowburn R&B of "Fistful Of Love". The Johnsons exhibit sublime, understated care in their supporting role, frequently recalling the skill and restraint of The Bad Seeds and the Tindersticks. .
"I Am A Bird Now" heralds the arrival of a major voice. Perhaps not a voice for everyone, but for those searching for humanity and soul in music, you'll find it in Antony and The Johnsons.

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