I Am a Bird Now

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Feb 1 2005

Overview Edit

I Am a Bird Now is the critically-acclaimed second album by New York City band Antony and the Johnsons. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize on July 19, 2005, and subsequently was announced winner on September 6, 2005. After winning the prize, the album shot up the UK albums chart from #135 to #16 in one week, the biggest jump in the history of the Mercury Music Prize. It originally peaked at #78. In Australia the album reached # 69.

The album features guest appearances by Rufus Wainwright ("What Can I Do?"), Devendra Banhart, Joan Wasser and by lead singer Antony Hegarty's childhood heroes Boy George and Lou Reed. The cover is a photograph by Peter Hujar of Warhol Superstar Candy Darling on her deathbed (aptly titled "Candy Darling on Her Deathbed").

"Hope There's Someone" is listed at #28 on Pitchfork Media's Top 500 Songs of the 2000's and was selected 2005's best single; the album is #5 on their Top 50 Albums of 2005.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Bird_Now. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
Catalog number:
SC105
Release dates:
  • Feb 1 2005 in United States

Genres

Chamber Pop, Indie, Indie Pop, Rock. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars The Hatching Of A New Bird
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 exceptio…
Written by Juan Mobili
3 stars Amazing performances, but some reservations
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 sup…
Written by Robert Dahm

Track listing Edit

Credits Edit

  1. performer

Other versions Edit

I Am a Bird Now 10 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: SC105
release dates: Feb 1 2005 in United States
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