ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
You Are My Sister EP
(Secretly Canadian / Rough Trade)
· Beautiful Debris.
Given Antony's somewhat surprising win of the 2005 U.K. Mercury Music Prize of album of the year for the stunning I Am A Bird Now, it's momentarily tempting to come down hard on the extraneous offerings of this, his third EP release in the past 12 months.
Upon first listen, however, it's readily apparent that the (wo)man responsible for Bird's instantly timeless classicism (and that voice! oh! that voice!) has a bag full of tricks that’s still bursting at the seams. Midway between Nina Simone and Bryan Ferry, Antony's range and emotional impact are paralleled by few – consider how the only suitable reference points are long-gone legends or complete anomalies from the history of popular music.
Sure, "Forest of Love" may verge on processed cheese (still, who else could open a song with, "I am a girl / five years old," and pull off the transition from 30-something tranny to innocent with such ease?), but "Paddy's Gone," a heart-breaker chant seemingly from the viewpoint of an Irish war bride watching her man disappear off into the countryside ("love that man / scared without him"), stuffs an aural War & Peace into all of three minutes. Extra props due for the Boy George duet on the title track is the type of collaboration that comes off as made in heaven.
And that voice, oh, that voice could lead me anywhere and I'd follow.
|
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.