Just Like Heaven (I Am A Bird Now - Antony & The Johnsons)

Member Name: utero

Product:	I Am A Bird Now - Antony & The Johnsons
Date:	04/01/06 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully crafted songs, uplifting, emotional, spiritual, different

Disadvantages: Not for everyones tastes

Earlier in 2005 I was travelling down the bypass with the radio on. Everything was fine and then Jo Whiley played a song that apparently had been getting a few requests. I remember hearing it and being affected by its simplicity, it was beautiful but I never picked up on the name of the artist.

Months later I caught the end of the Mercury Music Prize ceremony on TV and found the same song being played live. It was then I discovered Anthony & The Johnsons, the next day I went and bought the cd.

I Am A Bird Now featured in many of the top album lists of 2005 and won the previously mentioned Mercury prize ahead of acts such as The Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. It is not an album that will appeal to everyone but those who dig it will no doubt have it on their turntable for a while.

The music can best be described as stripped down and bare. There’s not a lot of heavy production on any of the tracks. Essentially it’s piano, strings and percussion and nothing else. Oh I nearly forgot, the thing that makes this stand out from similar styles is the voice of Anthony. I can best describe it as an angelic warble that will either enchant or infuriate you.

The album is a tale of love, loss, confusion, sexuality and much more. The record opens with ‘Hope There’s Someone’. This is the song I heard all those months back. It’s a very poignant track with a haunting vocal and melody. “Hope there’s someone who’ll take care of me when I die” is just the opening line but for me it sums up the whole song. Without being morbid it’s the kind of song you’d hear in a funeral scene in an American teen drama as the camera pans up and fades into the darkness. Amazing stuff.

It would be easy to say that the album reaches its peak with it’s opening track. But the truth is that there is plenty more where that came from. On ‘You Are My Sister’ you’ll find a guest vocal performance from Boy George. I have to say at the time I didn’t know it was him as you wouldn’t associate the vocal with the voice of Culture Club on the first listen. The song itself is a mellow upbeat/downbeat track with some great strings.

Rufus Wainwright guests on ‘What Can I Do’. A heartfelt lullaby that wraps itself up perfectly in under two minutes flat.

‘Fistful of Love’ features the dulcet tones of Lou Reed and is certainly influenced by the man himself. It’s a slowbeat number that gradually builds into a burst of horns and saxaphone noodling.

I would say that with this album you have to be the kind of person who appreciates the simple nature of music. It’s certainly a laid back affair. If you’ve found the beauty and poetry in artists such as Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley then you’re bound to find more of it in this record.

As mentioned the album opens impressively. So with all great albums it also closes on a high. ‘Bird Gerhl’ is a beautiful track with fantastic vocals and some sweet string arrangements mellowed in with piano. It’s three minutes of bliss.
To go into great detail about every track would be a great disservice to an album that you should discover with your own ears. Go to the official website to get a small taster of what the sound is like.

For me its place on those top albums of 2005 is richly deserved. I’ve read comments from some quarters that it’s over hyped. Well personally it’s accolades come from being different from the norm. Whatever your final opinion there can be no doubt that the album will speak to you on some level.


http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com/

Summary: Listen to see what all the fuss is about