Soundbites

Antony And The Johnsons “I Am A Bird Now”
Secretly Canadian Records

A single piano chord, and then it emerges: the sound of a slinky
Billie Holiday in makeup and purple pants. The leader of the group
Antony And The Johnsons, Antony, sings with a voice untouched by
age or gender. His stately vibrato, while off-putting at first,
reveals the influence of theater and his past experience in New
York’s late-night cabarets. That this androgynous voice comes
from a similarly androgynous white male is irrelevant to its beauty
and makes his melodies all the more impressive. Antony’s
vocals are cradled by piano, drums and delicately laid strings,
lush and warm and soft as a blanket. The Tin Pan Alley-influenced
songs themselves are no less than beautiful, but their real
strength is in Antony’s sincerity. “One day I’ll
grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl/ but for today, I am a
child/ For today, I am a boy,” he sings in “For Today I
Am A Boy.” Words that might sound comedic in another’s
hands are profoundly serious in Antony’s as he harmonizes
like a miniature gospel choir, always sounding genuinely emotional
without ever going overboard. As he pounds the piano keys, he seems
more sad about being trapped in childhood than his male status,
though sexuality is certainly one of the album’s main themes.
Antony uses a blurred sense of sexuality to explore the meanings of
society’s gender distinctions and life in general. The gender
lines he draws are confused further by the appearances of gay icons
Rufus Wainwright and Lou Reed, who included Antony in his band on
several recent tours. Wainwright takes lead vocals on “What
Can I Do,” a song where simple instrumentation is a
refreshing change of pace from the flamboyance of his latest work.
“Fistful Of Love,” a song aptly titled for Reed’s
appearance, completes the guest-star one-two punch with the
album’s most upbeat number, driven home by a Motown groove
and a killer horn section. The sexual element is often subtle, more
implied than discussed explicitly, and Antony’s lyrics are
not an attempt to create controversy. Rather, they reflect the
world as he sees it, tapping into the grey areas between straight
and gay, male and female. Sexuality is absent from many of the
songs: “My Lady Story” narrates the life of a breast
cancer survivor; “You Are My Sister” is an ode to his
sister’s dreams, and “Bird Girl” is a hopeful,
triumphant song about finding wings and flying away. Like all great
artists, Antony doesn’t claim to have all the answers.
Rather, Antony And The Johnsons’ second album is about
journeying without necessarily having a specific destination in
mind ““ it’s the moment when you pull over to the side
of the road, stop the car, and wait for the sun to sink into the
ocean. “I Am A Bird Now” is the strongest declaration
of real, mature emotion to be released in quite some time. Take
Antony And The Johnsons along for the ride the next time you go
searching for the meaning of life; you may find more than you ever
expected. ““ David Greenwald