Review: Antony and the Johnsons

Antony Hegarty has a voice you cannot forget. As the soul behind New York’s Antony & the Johnsons, the transgendered vocalist weeps somber reflections on birth and death with his third album, The Crying Light. Hegarty sings with a fragile quiver that can summon the jarring strength and drama of Nina Simone or Jimmy Scott. His musical arrangements are minimal and sparse, built primarily on simple piano, but flushed with volume through orchestral subtlety and tilted flourishes of gentle noise. The instrument of focus, despite the dozens of musicians featured on the record, is Hegarty, who, stripping his accompaniments bare, sings naked and vulnerable, his cadence occasionally quickening with frantic urgency, but most often hovering cautiously, as if his exposure could crumble him at any second. Check out a few tracks below.

“Another World”–a track released this past year, which I featured on my Missing Notes Best of 2008 mixtape–is the album’s standout. Watch the video here.

“Epilepsy Is Dancing” is surreal. The video here is NSFW.