Antony I Am A Bird Now CD

Features Lou Reed,Devendra Banhart & Rufus Wainright

Personnel: Devendra Banhart, Lou Reed (vocals, guitar); Antony (vocals, piano, organ); Rufus Wainwright, Boy George (vocals); Joan Wassen, Joan Wasser, Danielle Farina (viola); Keith Bonnen, Keith Bonner (flute); Paul Shapiro , Steven Bernstein (trumpet, horns); Jason Hart (piano); Jeff Langston (bass guitar); Todd Cohen , John Bollinger, Todd Cohen (drums); Maxim Moston (violin); Julia Kent (cello); Doug Wieselman (saxophone); Parker Kindred (drums).
Audio Mixers: Emily Dobyns; Doug Henderson.
Photographers: Don Felix Cervantes; Peter Hujar; Matthew Marks Galleny; Josef Astor.
Unknown Contributor Role: Julia Yasuda.
Antony and the Johnsons' second full-length recording, the haunting and affecting I Am a Bird Now, is a far more intimate affair than their debut. Antony's bluesy parlor room cadence is more upfront here, resulting in a listening experience that's both exhilarating and disquieting. "Hope There's Someone" is a somber opener, and its plea for companionship, augmented by a sparse piano/vocal arrangement that rises into the air by song's end in a swirl of multi-tracked harmonies, is ultimately uplifting. This formula is applied to much of the record and never ceases to elicit honest emotion from either Antony or his numerous guests. Rufus Wainwright takes the lead on "What Can I Do?," a languid meditation on death that conjures up images of rainy streets, lonely lampposts, and cigar smoke -- it's brief (under two minutes) but alluring like the cover of a Raymond Chandler novel. Boy George joins Antony for a duet on the soulful and empowering "You Are My Sister," Devendra Banhart lends his warbly tenor to the lush "Spiraling," and Lou Reed plays noodly guitar and recites an anonymous poem on the mischievous "Fistful of Love." It's a testament to Antony's skill as a writer and arranger that these guest appearances are completely devoid of pretense, and while each artist is reverent to the source material, it's still Antony's show, as the most powerful moments on I Am a Bird Now are his. ~ James Christopher Monger
Though he probably achieved his greatest mainstream recognition backing up Lou Reed on tour, idiosyncratic songbird Antony is a fully established artiste in his own right. Backed by the Johnsons, as on I AM A BIRD NOW, he crafts delicate ballads that skirt the lines between cabaret, artsong, and pop, with the kind of voice that Stephin Merritt would probably kill for. Antony's unique pipes bring to mind an androgynous Bryan Ferry or a high, quavery summit meeting between Jimmy Scott (another Reed supporter) and Aaron Neville. The stately, graceful, largely piano-driven songs on I AM A BIRD NOW are full of honest, uncluttered emotion, but never go over the top. The communication is direct and immediate, as wisps of melancholy settle around the listener. Guest shots by kindred spirits Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart, and Reed himself vary the tone a bit, but the fragile beauty of this album is a singular, affecting thing.

Rolling Stone (No. 967, p.84) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[Antony's voice is] an instrument of delicacy and rapture in which Nina Simone, Morrissey and Joni Mitchell seem to inhabit the same breath..."
Spin (p.61) - Ranked #28 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2005" - "[His falsetto] resonates with the power of decidedly nonmale vocalists like Nico and Nina Simone..."
Spin (p.92) - "Scarily intimate and irresistibly beautiful." - Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly (p.143) - Ranked #10 in Entertainment Weekly's 'Top Ten Records of the Year' - "The music - equal parts muted cabaret and heavenly modern hymns - flies like the bird of the title."
Entertainment Weekly (No. 804/805, p.133) - "[A] strings-garnished plunge into the depths of heartbreak (and gender-bending)..." - Grade: B+
Uncut (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Antony's eloquent tales of alienation an love, played with Bad Seeds vigour by The Johnsons, are precious but palatable, and provoke compelling vocals from seasoned outsiders."
The Wire (p.41) - Included in The Wire's "2005 Rewind: 50 Records Of The Year."
The Wire (p.51) - "[I]t's Antony's voice that will move you, make you swoon."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.56) - Ranked #1 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2005" - "Not just a truly brilliant record, but a record that seemed to promise that the pop music mainstream need never be the same again."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.62) - Ranked #43 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[L]onesome tales of heartbreak, longing and loss, finally arriving at some kind of redemption. An essential journey."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.88) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[T]his is tough, honest, uncompromising beauty and the next great voice in music."