Antony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light
Antony returns, and this time he feels the pain of the entire world
With the 2005 release of I Am A Bird Now, Antony Hegarty didn't simply transcend his downtown Manhattan performance-art cult following; the British-born singer and songwriter became everybody's empath. With the voice of an arcangel and the build of a middle linebacker, the transgendered Antony wrote songs that connected with all the world's lonely people: the dying, the diseased, the downtrodden and the everyday sad. <I Am A Bird Now showcased Antony as a man who sings like a woman about wanting to be a girl, and his outsider identity (or non-identity) defined the record's appeal.
Four years later, The Crying Light finds Antony once again feeling the world's pain — literally. Environmentalism is his main squeeze on songs such as "Daylight And The Sun" and lead single "Another World." On the latter, he sings, "I'm gonna miss the sea/I'm gonna miss the snow/I'm gonna miss the bees/I'll miss the things that grow." It's quite a bit more moving than an Al Gore PowerPoint presentation, however. Antony's sad, soulful warble is here in all its lunar beauty, making a mournful moan on opener "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground" and performing Aaron Neville-esque vibrato tricks on "Dust And Water." While nothing here is as torch-song anthemic as I Am A Bird Now's piano-and-voice soliloquy "Hope There's Someone," The Crying Light is easily Antony's most consistent work. New to the Johnsons fold is composer and arranger Nico Muhly (who's worked with Björk, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Philip Glass), and the group decorates Antony's piano with well-polished bits of chamber music: the pull of a cello here, the burst of classical guitar there. Even though Antony may fill seats at Carnegie Hall, it seems pointless to deconstruct these songs as compositions when their main purpose is to affect you emotionally. If even the light is crying, you don't stand a chance.
