Antony And The Johnsons
I Am A Bird Now LP vinyl

Antony and the Johnsons' second full-length recording, (and Mercury Award winning) is the haunting and affecting I Am a Bird Now - 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 - short, (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.

NEW / Released in 2004 / Reissue 2016

Tracklist:

A1 Hope There's Someone

A2 My Lady Story

A3 For Today I Am A Boy

A4 Man Is The Baby

A5 You Are My Sister

B1 What Can I Do? (with Rufus Wainwright)

B2 Fistful Of Love (with Lou Reed)

B3 Spiralling - (with Devendra Banhart)

B4 Free At Last

B5 Bird Gerhl