Antony and the Johnsons

Antony is a rare and unique artist that seems to exist in a cultural vacuum where things like MTV, cell phones and the Internet do not exist. When I first heard him, I thought of Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet. His voice echoes cabaret and lounge greats but is at once unique and his own. Lou Reed spotted Antony a couple of years ago and collaborated with him on The Raven. Antony toured with him and was said to bring down the house with his regular encores of Candy Says. You may also remember him from a small but memorable part he had in Steve Buscemi's Animal Factory. Antony played an androgynous inmate serenading the other prisoners.

Antony and the Johnsons' latest album, I Am A Bird Now is unlike anything I have heard in a long time. It is refreshingly genuine and irony-free. His quivering falsetto could reduce long-shoremen to tears.

MP3:
Hope There's Someone

From:
I Am A Bird Now

Antony and the Johnsons