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proudly presents
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Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
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Artist: Antony And The Johnsons
Album: I Am A Bird Now
Company: Secretly Canadian
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Rel. Date : 01/29/2005 Streetdate : 02/01/2005
Ripper : team pyt Supplier : team pyt
Genre : Indie Style : Indie
Quality : VBRkbps / 44.1kHz Mode : Joint-Stereo
Grabber : EAC Encoder : Lame 3.90.3 -aps
Songs : 10 Playtime : 35:27 min
Size : 44,4 MB
Url : http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com
Type : Album Source : CDDA
Language : English
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There is a myth that great artists operate in seclusion. One
need look no further than to the ten songs of Antony and the
Johnsons' new album, I Am A Bird Now, to realize this is an
utter fallacy. To be sure, with his androgynous features, the
singularly named Antony is an original. Have you ever heard a
voice like this, imbued with the transcendental emotion of
the blues, yet deployed with an unadorned simplicity
reminiscent of medieval music practice, and graced with a top
note of childlike wonder? Or songs that blur distinctions of
gender and identity, yet which still summon up such powerful
feelings: longing, love, lust, loss? No. Because Antony is
one-of-a-kind. But he is certainly not alone.
I Am A Bird Now, the second full-length from this
extraordinary New York artist and his cohorts, 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.
"Everyone's presence on the record shows them at their most
unique, making a special contribution that is specific to
them," says Antony. He arranged each one with painstaking
precision, like a director creating an extended tableau on
stage.
"Bringing other people in makes me feel less lonely," adds
Antony. "I was making the album intuitively, the way I felt
it wanted to be made. A lot of these people helped inspire
this record."
As a youngster in California, Antony was smitten by the
beguiling image of Boy George on Culture Club's 1982 debut
album Kissing To Be Clever. "George was really the first
reflection I saw of myself in the world," he explains. "I saw
him and thought, 'Okay, that's what we do when we're like
this: We become singers.'" Twenty two years later, Antony
found himself sitting at a piano, recording the haunting "You
Are My Sister" with his icon. "When he was in the studio, I
just felt this big, long circle connecting in my spirit."
Another one of Antony's champions, Lou Reed, introduces the
soulful"Fistful of Love," an intoxication concoction that
mixes Muscle Shoals soul with an almost heroic sense of
masochism. In 2003, Reed asked Antony to reinterpret "Perfect
Day" for his album The Raven. Subsequently, the former Velvet
Underground front man invited Antony to perform as part of
the small ensemble on his American and European tours; he
even gave Antony a solo turn on the VU classic "Candy Says,"
an homage to another one of Antony's inspirations, Warhol
superstar Candy Darling.
Fitting, then, that the image adorning the cover of I Am A
Bird Now is Peter Hujar's striking 1974 photograph "Candy
Darling on Her Deathbed." In Hujar's black and white images
of underground figures like Darling and Divine, Antony found
another early touchstone. "There's no sense of voyeurism in
his portraits," explains the singer. "They show an inside
perspective. And that's something I'm interested in: being
empathic, not voyeuristic."
When Antony moved to New York in 1990, he came in search of a
community where he could feel like an insider. He instigated
the avant garde cabaret ensemble Blacklips, renown for their
regular performances at the Pyramid Club, in New York's then
vibrant East Village. Initially, he modeled himself on
Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet, and the bald drag queen
pictured on the sleeve of Soft Cell's 1982 single "Torch." "I
got that record when I was 11 years old, and thought, 'That's
going to be me one day.' And I have pictures of me at the
Pyramid, with a shaved head, in a slip, and holding a
cigarette, singing love songs."
Since that arrival, Antony has gradually come into his own,
winning accolades for his performances everywhere from Joe's
Pub and Germany's Biennale Bonn, to a turn in Steve Buscemi's
independent film Animal Factory. Yet I Am A Bird Now is a
great leap forward from Antony and the Johnsons eponymous
2000 debut album (reissued last year by Secretly Canadian)
and the 2001 single "I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy." "In a
weird way, this album is much more personal," he admits. As
he shed many of his archetypal influences, Antony dared to
reveal even more of himself to the listener. "I Am A Bird Now
feels more intimate. In making it, I tried to bring
everything - how it was recorded, how it was performed -
extremely close, so it felt seductive, like it was right in
your ear."
Some musicians hide behind personas, or the words of others,
or fine-tuned video imagery. Antony, as otherworldly as he
may look and sound, is not afraid of letting audiences see
his true self, however vulnerable. "Opening myself up to the
work, and to the world, is my passion," he concludes. "That
is the great risk, and the great boon, of doing this:
There is that rare experience the performer gets to enjoy,
which, in a way, is like having your spirit witnessed by
people. And, sometimes, appreciated. Perhaps people will see
it and relate, or identify themselves in it." And thus the
community that has nurtured Antony, up to and through the
creation of I Am A Bird Now (and beyond), continues to
flourish and grow.
-Kurt B Reighley
Enjoy!
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01. [04:21] Hope There's Someone
02. [03:33] My Lady Story
03. [02:36] For Today I Am A Boy
04. [04:09] Man Is The Baby
05. [04:00] You Are My Sister
06. [01:41] What Can I Do?
07. [05:52] Fistfull of Love
08. [04:25] Spiralling
09. [01:36] Free at Last
10. [03:14] Bird Girl
-------
35:27 min
44,4 MB
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