Antony & The Johnsons - I am a Bird Now
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Antony & The JohnsonsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Music Label: Secretly Canadian
Soundtracks:
- Hope There's Someone
- My Lady Story
- For Today I Am a Bouy
- Man Is the Baby
- You Are My Sister
- What Can I Do?
- Fistful of Love
- Spiralling
- Free at Last
- Bird Guhl
Free Music Notes for I am a Bird Now
Free Music Review: A Bride on Fire
Hit: 5 Stars
It's been a long time since I last felt the desire to share my thoughts on an album. True, I've never been a prolific reviewer. In the past, however, I was more receptive of things musical. Or should I say I was more easily enthused? Quicker at becoming attuned to the ways in which a textual object would lend itself to interpretation? Perhaps I was a keener semiotician then, or liked to think that I was. Perhaps I was more naïve and confident that I could grasp the complexities behind art, or at least that I might be able to uncover (and then convey) one possible meaning treasured within a work of art. Sadly, a lot has changed in my life over the past two and a half years.
Most significantly, I have been through an experience which seems to me to be so close to the one Antony describes incredibly well in I am a Bird Now, by means of the lyrics and the singing style employed. Does he really describe it though? I can't positively say. It sometimes seems like a fallacy on my part, like an easy projection of my life onto suggestions which are polysemous and poetic more than they are specific to any one situation. However, this realization would lead to self-censuring and self-castration. So let's for a minute pretend I'm right. Let's assume that I am a Bird Now is about Loss, about Grieving, about finding Reason or at least Hope and some Beauty in the midst of personal tragedy. Let's presume that it talks about the suffering of someone who doesn't feel at ease in their environment, both physical and psychological.
That Antony is a gender-bending artist is a given. That there is ample use of metaphor in his lyrics is likewise undeniable. While this contributes to making the songs feel painfully sincere, it doesn't strike me as central. Beyond Antony's gender-defying verbal and vocal renditions (which account for my lax use of pronouns), there seems to be a core topic, that of abandonment and loneliness, the sense that something has happened to place the bird in a cage, making it unable to fly. That's how the album starts off. If I am a Bird Now is indeed a story about survival and widowhood, as I like to see it, then it seems also to be a story about communication with those who have left us. There are many instances in which I see the unrequited monologue of the widow to her (my) loved one and her (my) faith that silent answers can be heard through unexpected channels. That's how pain and love become inextricably intertwined well beyond common masochism. Ultimately, the narration seems to develop toward some kind of solution, although it is more about resolve and wishful thinking than it is about actual recovery. It's an animal-like instinct to move on to a new prey, not by virtue of a predatory urge in and of itself, but for the sake of life over death. The most innocent of impulses, the one that truly allows for the bird gerhl to fly and then go to heaven.
Is it all a fallacy on my part, or is I am a Bird Now really to be taken so seriously? I do not know, nor do I care. What I do know is that listening to it made me cry those tears that I had been withholding up until then. That it stirred me and made me feel like someone was expressing the emotions that I myself was unable to express, even though I wanted to and needed to. What I do know is that this is the one CD that I have been wanting to review since I first listened to it, breaking my two and a half year reserve. While this doesn't make my assumptions any more accurate, it does pay honour to Antony and the Johnsons and to I am a Bird Now. This is a thank you, as well as a heartfelt five-star review.
I am a Bird Now Poster
I Am A Bird Now, is the second full-length album from extraordinary New York artist, ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS, and features contributions from both Antony's peers (RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, DEVENDRA BANHARDT) and heroes (LOU REED, BOY GEORGE). Their involvement reflects both their admiration for Antony, and his unique place in the contemporary arts community. Antony was recently in Australia to perform at the LEONARD COHEN tribute nights at the Sydney Opera House. BERNARD ZUEL reported in the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: And in the category of "where the hell has he been hiding?" was the hulking, shambling figure of New York singer Antony, who left open mouths on and off the stage with his heart-piercing explorations of The Guests and the prayer-like If It Be Your Will. The reacton from the audience on each night was astounding, they were simply transfixed by his vocal delivery and performance. I Am A Bird Now is going to be 2005s left-field hit record. Antonys gospel songs come from another world.It?s not often that an album released in January gets called one of the best of the year in near-unison, but the second full length by Antony and the Johnsons is so startlingly beautiful that it simply has to be. Like his friend and compatriot Devendra Banhart, Antony is a super-talented singer-songwriter with a flair for dramatic artsong. But the cherubic Antony is so original he must get mistaken for an alien quite often; he sings like a bluesy opera singer and switches timbre from masculine to feminine in the space of a breath. The only vocal comparison that comes close is Nina Simone. Antony?s honest lyrics deal with deep wounds and troubled desires with matter of fact poetry and subtle humor, as in a short story by JT LeRoy. Aided and abetted by a versatile band that?s often closer to chamber orchestra than rock act, Antony delivers a visionary album with I Am A Bird Now. Oh yeah: Rufus Wainwright, Devendra, Lou Reed and Boy George all appear on here, too. --Mike McGonigal
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