Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Antony and the Johnsons: The Crying Light

(Four stars)

Few vocalists are capable of the range Antony brings to his songs. Blessed with a singularly rich vibrato, the New York-based singer moves as fluidly through genres as he does genders, staying still only long enough to transform again.

On The Crying Light, Antony and his band the Johnson’s follow up to their Mercury Prize-winning I Am A Bird Now, the singer remains a compelling, elusive presence, as likely to break into seam-bursting theatrics as he is to simply disappear into a song.

Turning his gaze to the natural world, Antony grounds his meditations on loss, transformation and rebirth in the elements, as he asks for light to make him anew (‘Daylight in the Sun’) and mourns a dying world (‘Another World’). Combining the rousing (‘Kiss My Name’) with the understated (‘One Dove’), often within the space of a single song, the music is always anchored by Antony’s remarkable voice, a sound so singularly heartfelt that it grounds even his most histrionic moments.

The mostly piano-led arrangements, nimbly adorned with strings and distant hints of dissonance, always give Antony’s pipes the space they need to roam through octaves and incarnations, to grieve and celebrate everything that changes and passes.

This review originally appeared in The Big Issue No 320.

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