(photo: source unknown)

Of all this week’s high profile new releases, The Crying Light, Antony and the Johnsons third album, is the one I’m having the most difficulty getting my head around.  I have always found Antony Hegarty to be the most interesting and unique of vocalists, and always love his work when he guest vocals for the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Björk, Lou Reed, and most recently his dancefloor-filling work with Hercules & Love Affair.  With his own band, though, I’ve always found it difficult to sit and listen to an album from beginning to end.

Their albums are certainly not the kinds that can be put on in the background while you dust and do dishes–the emotional power and depth of Antony’s performances can be overpowering and disorientating.  Coupled with the classically-inspired, soulful arrangements, the sum of the magic of Antony and the Johnsons  music places it in a class of its own.  I think it’s the sheer weight of emotional gravitas that makes me hesitate to sit through it all in one take.  That’s why I’m scratching my head at the fact that The Crying Light is an “easy listen” for me.  From the opening moments of “Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground” to the gorgeous, “Everglade”, there’s nary a fault or misstep.   The near perfect “Another World” is the centrepiece of this exquisite, intimate collection of songs.  Hegarty dedicates the album to Kazuo Ohno, the famed Butoh dancer whom he describes as “kind of like my art parent,” noting that, “In performance I watched him cast a circle of light upon the stage, and step into that circle, and reveal the dreams and reveries of his heart. He seemed to dance in the eye of something mysterious and creative.”  Hegarty too is dancing (vocally, at least) in the eye of something mysterious and creative, and though the title may not imply it, there’s much joy and wonder to find in The Crying Light.

Video: Antony and the Johnsons “Another World”
Video: Antony and the Johnsons “Crazy In Love (Live)” [Beyonce cover]
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Buy: Antony and the Johnsons The Crying Light