I Am a Bird Now

by

Antony and the Johnsons

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Well, this may be one of those "love-it-or-hate-it" cases, the kind of album you'll consider an extraordinary discovery that made your year, or the kind of music that makes unexplainable how the friend who turned you onto it, loves it so much.

What everyone might agree on, though, is that such strong reaction to it comes from one source, the band's powerful presence and distinct identity.

Practically every song hits a deep chord on you, each a different one, and a huge part of it is the exceptional dramatic range of Antony's voice, which infuses of a certain pouring of his heart. Imagine a more romantic and desperate, yet less operatic, Rufus Wainwright, without necessarily going over the edge.

Whether "Hope There's Someone" with its mournful tone, or the gorgeous and chant-like "My Lady Story," or "For Today I'm Not A Boy" which is lovely and difficult -and a high moment in this album- as the music and the lyrics build together. Just in the first three songs, the group shows that they are a new and genuine sensibility.

As comparisons go, Antony and the Johnsons belong to the same emotive thread than the Tindersticks, most present in "Fistful of Love", and taking his own path on "You Are My Sister." Yet, they would not be out of place backing Marianne Faithful or doing covers of Kurt Weil's songs.

The rest of the songs don't fall far behind from those I mentioned. Each may end up your favorite, and can be the code to a secret frequency in your heart, evoked not necessarily by the lyrics but a consistent -not repetitive- feel of being late-night and being alone remembering your life.

What is puzzling and particular about Antony is the innocence of his lyrics, even when addressing dark personal places, being just as true as the weary heart that he evokes in his voice.

All in all, this is the most impressive album I heard all year, even if it's so likely to divide the waters between worshipers and those stunned that anyone may like it.

I deeply wanted to love this album.

I think that Antony is one of those rare performers for whom the act of creating music is an almost spiritual experience. That is, it is an act without ego, without any kind of pretense - it is an act purely in the service of something outside of, and greater than oneself: the music. You also get this sense in the performances of Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen, and the better performances of Nick Cave and Tom Waits.

And the performances on this album are superb. They maximally express the content of each and every song.

The problem is, the songs just aren't that great.

With Buckley, Cohen, Waits and Cave, the singer is conduit to some of the greatest popular music ever written. Antony and Johnsons' songs aren't bad, but they don't have the emotional or psychological heft of the aforementioned.

Compare, then, Antony's performance on the Leonard Cohen tribute of 'If it be your will'. Despite the somewhat overblown instrumental arrangements, this is a transforming experience, and everything I know that this band is capable of.