CD review

Antony and the Johnsons

The Crying Light

Review by Samson McD

 

Everybody needs a bit of a cry now and then and with 2005s I am a bird now, Antony and his not so merry band of Johnsons created the perfect backdrop for rueful late evening brooding and regrets. While the morose moments of The Crying Light again manage to summate the teary realisation of the inevitable misery of life, there is some lyrical clumsiness in the beginning that detracts from the weight of this work as a whole.

The opening couple of tracks meander enough to lose a distracted listener—a potential travesty as the momentum gathered through the back end of the album results in a moving experience, a poignant listen. A duality between death bed requiem and glory-of-life optimism exists on this record more so than the introspective gender questioning and sexual nature of the previous three. So while the scope of The Crying Light’s base material feels infinitely more expansive than the groundbreaking I am a Bird Now, the potential for exploration of nooks or an out-of-the-way alley is more limited this time—somehow less intricate or complex.

If the delicacy of Antony’s voice, demeanour and approach—not to mention his extraterrestrial oddity—has reinforced the beauty of the fragility of the human spirit for you in the past then the new album will not disappoint. This is powerful stuff from a unique talent but not for everyone as most will have already discovered. Sparse room for fence-dwelling here.