The Crying Light

Antony and the Johnsons | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 20, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• ASIN: B001MW0IY8
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,382 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #24 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Chamber Pop

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A soul stirring new work with daring compositions and captivating vocals. This isn't a heart breaking; it's a heart waking." --The Oregonian

Product Description

2009 release, the highly anticipated follow-up to I Am a Bird Here, Antony shifts the thematic focus and explores his relationship with the elemental and natural world, and the intimacy of the Johnsons' sound is enveloped by subtle symphonic arrangements. The first moments of "Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground" set the stage, conjuring an animist world with enigmatic lyrics, painterly clarinet lines, and a lilting piano that cradles the listener over a menacing quarry of strings. The record's centerpiece, "Another World", traces despair in the face of a vanishing landscape. The hypnotic vocal on "Dust and Water" unfurls like smoke, and the track "Everglade", co-arranged with Nico Muhly, concludes the album.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Antony does it again!, January 20, 2009

By 

104-9827-0000 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crying Light (Audio CD)

This is Antony's best album yet. Though I enjoy his previous albums immensely, I have had to listen to them several times before I realized the sheer genius behind them. This album, however, I fell in love with from the first listen (which was only a few hours ago as it was officially released the day of this writing). Literally every song is a masterpiece of heartbreaking and fragile beauty. The instrumentation alone is suberb and awe-inspiring. Add to that Antony's ghostly, gentle, and emotionally-charged vibrato, and what you have is an incredible work of art that is in a league totally of its own, far surpassing the stagnant and dull world of most contemporary music. The songs here transcend all categorization, including that of "happy" or "sad." They sound instead like dispatches from "another world," a world where our petty concerns are lost in an overwhelming tide of beauty and purity. Rarely does a CD provoke such feelings in me. Thank you Antony, thank you.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Out-of-this-word vocals with thoughtful, sumptuously crafted music., January 28, 2009

By 

smoothjazz_views (Beverly Hills, CA and London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crying Light (Audio CD)

"Intense, intoxicating... just plain odd, the voice of Antony Hegarty seem less human, more angelic, as if a Renaissance cherub had decided to sing the blues".
An emotional mix of Little Jimmy Scott, Nina Simone and Boy George, some others say.
Others have described Hegarty's songs as more akin to classical lieder, which seems a better description of its emotional weight.
Following up his breakthrough album, the 2005 British Mercury prize winning "I Am Bird Now", Antony Hegarty turns his attention to his relationship with the natural world for "The Crying Light".
2005 was the most dramatic and costly year on record for natural disasters. From the aftershocks of the Asian tsunami to the hurricanes and earthquakes that occurred across the globe, it became apparent that something was up with Mother Nature and that we might have something to do with it.
And the whole album pivots around "Another World" - something of a farewell anthem to this world, the simple piano gilded with what sounds a cross between whale song and The Clangers.
The track - which was already on his five-song EP "Another World" - is the tear-jerking heart of "The Crying Light", a kind of Bridge Over Troubled Water for a dying earth.
Hegarty is greatly helped by Nico Muhly's symphonic arrangements, never more so than in the beautiful climax "Everglade", which resembles the soundtrack music from the denouement of a tear-jerking movie.
There are no showstoppers that grab you instantly by the emotional scruff of the neck like "Hope There's Someone" or "You Are My Sister", arguably the standout moments from "I Am A Bird Now".
With repeated listens though, the gems do start to shine through. "Kiss My Name" is perhaps the closest thing to a pop song with its shuffling beat, swooping strings and insistent piano riff.
"One Dove" is a stately ballad sung with heartbreaking passion and "Everglade" is a musically exquisite tone poem that brings proceedings to a delightfully serene close.
"There's no voice anywhere quite like Antony Hegarty's. Pitched somewhere between classic jazz diva and the plaintive cries of a wounded beast, it is a thing of rare beauty, pathos and soul, and as on the Anglo-Americans' earlier releases, it is absolutely central to The Crying Light".- BBC
Certainly the album is not the kind of record to stick on in the car or while doing the washing up, but it is a deep, philosophical, poetic album that will withstand playing for a long time.
My highlights: "Another World", "One Dove" and " Everglade".
I Am a Bird Now
Another World
Easy Come Easy Go

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The strangest pain, the sweetest sadness, January 22, 2009

By 

Storylover (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Crying Light (Audio CD)

Let's start by saying that you either are going to love Antony's voice, or you are going to be seriously scared by it. If you have not heard "I Am a Bird Now" or any of his other works, then prepare to be challenged by something completely different. If you have heard "I Am a Bird Now", then prepare to be challenged by something very similar.

First, that voice--that wondrous, painful voice. I think that I love it, but I have to listen to this album and his music in general when I am in just the right frame of mind, or I can't take it. My wife can't listen to him at all. Antony sings in a high, wavery voice that comes on like a falsetto, but the more you listen to it, the less you are sure that it is a falsetto. Could this simply be the range in which he sings? Whatever the verdict there, be certain that it is one of the most oddly cultivated singing voices ever to make an impact in music that can vaguely be termed "popular". He has been compared to Nina Simone, and I sort of see it--but only based on his very mannered vibrato. He does not have a wide range, but he is very expressive with the narrow range that he has; at least, if you regard "constantly seems to be about to dissolve into tears of despair" as "very expressive".

The music skirts the border between art songs and pop music written by very pretentious people. Usually, he stays pretty firmly on the "art song" side of the line, but occasionally, the schmaltz overwhelms everything, and only your personal reaction to his voice will determine if it comes off as "bizarre genius" or "wha...???" If you take the time to read his lyrics, they are often beautiful, confused musings on longing, becoming, love, and the lack thereof, but for me, the words are far secondary to the feeling, the emotion that is conveyed by this singer. His performance of the songs is so laden with emotion that the words are definitely less important that simply allowing yourself to be surrounded by him on all sides.

It is hard to review the songs one by one--the album is definitely a piece as a whole, but there are some standout moments. "Aeon" starts with a typically pretty piano figure with a harp backing, but then changes with the addition of an arpeggiated chord on an electric guitar. Antony seems to be the closest I have heard him to happiness as he sings "Oh Aeon! My baby boy! Oh, Aeon will take care of me". What does it mean? Who is Aeon? Is it God? As the song unfolds, I'm not sure if this is a plea for protection for himself, for someone else, or his father? Anyway, Antony backs himself in a gospel choir of emotion, soaring into an ecstasy. Pretty amazing song, I just wish I really knew what he was singing about.

"Dust and Water" has an almost Ladysmith Black Mambazo feel to it, although he sings solo. Not an easy feat to accomplish.

The final song, "Everglade", finds Antony at his most poetic. "When I'm floating in the water/And your eyes are lilies all around/When I'm lying sweetly in my bed/The sun plays crystal with my eyes", while woodwinds and strings form a lush backdrop. Beautiful, with just a drop of "over the top" to the production.

This is actually a very difficult record to review because it is so hard to separate the songs themselves from the performance. Antony is a true original (for better and for worse), and sometimes, in some moods, I love the courage and talent that he exudes. I love his heart on his sleeve approach and his wounded butterfly vibrato. But if I am not in just the right mood, that voice becomes grating, annoying, overly artificial. If you can't get past his performance, you'll never be able to appreciate his songcraft. His songs are beautiful, and it would be an interesting exercise to hear them performed by someone else, to see if someone else could draw out the same level of feeling and emotion, or if they are singable only by Antony. I'd be hard pressed to think of someone who I'd want to try this exercise--perhaps Harolyn Blackwell? Someone trained in Schumann lieder? Or someone raw like Patty Smith? I'm not sure.

If you loved his first two albums, you are going to love this. He has grown somewhat, but he has not really changed his formula. If you didn't like the previous collections, then this is not going to do anything to bring you into his fold. If you, like me, are still trying to figure him out, then you will probably still be intrigued. My one bit of advice is definitely to listen to a few sample tracks prior to buying this if you have never heard him before. You'll thank me--either for introducing you to something lovely and new, or for saving you from making the worst musical investment of your life.