I Am a Bird Now

Antony and the Johnsons

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2005)
• Original Release Date: February 1, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• ASIN: B000777J2S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,916 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It’s not often that an album released in January gets called one of the best of the year in near-unison, but the second full length by Antony and the Johnsons is so startlingly beautiful that it simply has to be. Like his friend and compatriot Devendra Banhart, Antony is a super-talented singer-songwriter with a flair for dramatic artsong. But the cherubic Antony is so original he must get mistaken for an alien quite often; he sings like a bluesy opera singer and switches timbre from masculine to feminine in the space of a breath. The only vocal comparison that comes close is Nina Simone. Antony’s honest lyrics deal with deep wounds and troubled desires with matter of fact poetry and subtle humor, as in a short story by JT LeRoy. Aided and abetted by a versatile band that’s often closer to chamber orchestra than rock act, Antony delivers a visionary album with I Am A Bird Now. Oh yeah: Rufus Wainwright, Devendra, Lou Reed and Boy George all appear on here, too. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

Singer-songwriter/pianist Antony is one of those rare artists who, while not unprecedented, still emerges as singular. His is an an arresting vibrato and his presence is gender-anxious and confrontational in its vulnerability. His fey yet firm poise is quivering, tension fraught, but never engulfingly overwrought. Menored by Lou Reed, Boy George, Rufus Wainright and Devendra Barnhart, Antony presents a unique spectoral sound of faded, frayed glamour. This his second album I am a Bird Now is a polished gilded productions including a bluesy purr worthy of Nina Simone in "My Lady Story" and "Fistful of Love," with its Muscle Shoals horn blurts-meet-Weimar cabaret swoons via The Velvet Underground's shuffle. As a whole, I Am a Bird Now exhibits a downy affinity for androgynous eccentricity. Rough Trade. 2005. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hatching Of A New Bird, February 19, 2005

By	Juan Mobili (Valley Cottage, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

83 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Post-Cabaret Changeling, March 15, 2005

By	WrtnWrd "Hankman" (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews

In the new world of post-cabaret, what sets Antony and the Johnsons apart from your Nellie McKay, your Rufus Wainwright, your Dresden Dolls is the voice, the literal and then the metaphoric one. Antony's vibrato - off-putting at first, or simply unusual - shares the timbre and shadings of early-Bryan Ferry circa Country Life. On their second release, I Am a Bird Now, Antony and the Johnsons speak for changelings of every stripe, specifically to the travails of the transgender community. If that sounds exclusionary, maybe it is, yet I Am a Bird Now is bracing from start to finish. Antony's songs - from "My Lady Story" to "You Are My Sister" to the Motown-styled "Fistful of Love" - are certainly specific to his place in the world, and sensitive to the plight of the sexually confused (or not so confused, as it turns out). Yet a plaint as simple as "For Today I Am a Boy" - in which Antony prays to one day "grow up to be a beautiful woman" - is heartbreaking, because who hasn't wanted to one day grow up to be something other than what they are? Which is to say that there is the pop specific and universal in his songs about a man who feels like a woman getting by in a man's world. Rumor has it that Lou Reed is a big fan, and that Antony's songs make him cry. If Lou Reed sheds a tear for this fierce and talented outsider, what chance do we mere mortals have?

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read before you regretfully dismiss this album., December 28, 2005

By	someguy (United States) - See all my reviews

Yes, this album isn't for those used to top 40. It may even turn off the most open of listeners. But what you absolutely cannot deny is that the emotion on this album is so rich, pure, and achingly heartfelt that if you listen a sincere ear, as if you were listening to a friend pouring his heart to you, your heart will break wide open right along with him. Some may be annoyed by the vibrato in his voice, but while others do it to be showy and technical, I can feel the emotion behind his voice. Some sing to try and find their emotions. He merely sings what he feels.

This is not the emperor's new clothes. If it were, it wouldn't bring tears to one's eyes. Music is about heart, not song structure, not 100% accuracy, and certainly not appeasing the masses. Oh, and you may also notice that two reviewers that gave this album 1 star used very descriptive words such as "poop" and "turd", respectively. Nice job, guys. I suppose you want to give Antony a wedgie, too?