Re: antony and the johnsons telegraph review -- The Marc Almond Message Board (le Voy est mort. Vive le Voy!)

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Date Posted: 23:53:38 03/16/05 Wed
Author: kay
Subject: Re: antony and the johnsons telegraph review
In reply to: article 's message, "antony and the johnsons" on 15:04:46 03/16/05 Wed

including an attack on marc's vocals...

antony and the Johnsons

I Am A Bird Now, Rough Trade, �11.99

Thirtysomething Antony has the build of a rugby player and the face of a saint. He's a camp diva in the mould of performance artist Leigh Bowery, yet he has made one of the most heartbreakingly intense soul records I've heard in years. You'd have to go back to Nina Simone, perhaps, or Otis Redding to find a pop voice with such raw emotional impact.

He was born in Chichester, but his family moved to California, and at 19 he ran away to New York. His role-models were Marc Almond and Boy George, but with his multi-octave range and affecting vibrato, Antony is a better singer than either of them, managing to avoid George's saccharine quality and Almond's nasal whine with its undercurrent of viciousness.

With its tender tales of heartbreak and gender confusion, what is disarming about this record is its lack of cynicism and knowingness. Soul and blues music are essentially the transformation of suffering into beauty, and Antony's journey from misfit to diva, with friends dying of Aids along the way, has certainly not been an easy one. He sings at one point of feeling like "a crippled dog with nothing to give".

A fixture in recent years at alternative New York clubs such as the Pyramid and the Kitchen, he quickly attracted to attention of some of his musical heroes, including Lou Reed (who says he felt "in the presence of an angel"), Rufus Wainwright and Boy George, who all guest on the album. In fact, these interventions rather break the spell of this extraordinary collection. Because the recording is so intimate and the strings so restrained, he flirts with - but just about avoids - melodrama.

Curiously, while female friends I played this record to were more circumspect, even the straightest male friends adored Antony's emotional expression. Scores of them, anyway, will be singing along with something like gay abandon at Antony's forthcoming London concert to songs such as For Today I Am a Boy. The song ends with the line "Someday I'll grow up to feel the power within me"; Antony has found that power, and the world is at his fragrant, pedicured feet. A camp soul masterpiece, this will surely be one of the records of the year. Peter Culshaw

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