First impressions #3: Antony and The Johnsons – The Crying Light

The Crying Light: a lesson in how to take guyliner too far

Who: Antony Hegarty, the British-born, New York-based transgender singer/songwriter and his band, The Johnsons.

What: The Crying Light – their third album and the follow up to 2005’s Mercury Prize-winning record I Am A Bird Now.

When: 19 Jan 2009

Critical reactions: Antony and The Johnsons have always been critical darlings and the new album has garnered lavish praise from most quarters. It’s even become Allmusic’s album pick for the band. But Rolling Stone gave the record 3/5, as did the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis who makes a valid point when he asks: “How many albums about anguish, death and body dysmorphia, sung in a tremulous, mournful, Nina Simone-inspired voice, does a person need?”

First impressions: Since entering semi-mainstream consciousness as a Mercury Prize-winner, Antony Hegarty has done disco and Dylan: the former by collaborating with pansexual New York dance group Hercules and Love Affair; the latter by contributing a sublimely tear-inducing cover of ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ to the soundtrack of I’m Not There (the Bob Dylan quasi-biopic where six actors portrayed the legendary singer).

With The Crying Light, however, Antony and The Johnsons seem to have deviated little from the blueprint of their last album. Even the cover image bears a striking familiarity, a black and white photo that’s at once disturbing and strangely beautiful.

Inside, gentle piano and strings underpin melodies that ache with melancholy even when the lyrics take a more positive or at least ambiguous tone. The words still have the power to make you feel both captivated and uncomfortable at a simple turn of phrase. ‘Epilepsy is Dancing’ sends shivers down my spine just as ‘Cripple and the Starfish’ from the band’s first album did.

Dominating everything is Antony’s haunting voice and at times we are reminded of how devastatingly beautiful it can be, such as on the sparse ‘Dust and Water’, which sounds as if he stood alone in the desert at night to record it.

In interviews, I’ve always had the impression that Antony lives in something of a fantasy world, that he wants to be even stranger than he really is. His surprised reaction to winning the Mercury Prize over hotly-tipped young bands was something along the lines of “I’m old enough to be their grandmother.” Well, not really. You’re only 38.

Pretentious statements about his art probably seem perfectly sensible in his own head but down here they make him appear self-aware and without any real insight. It may be I’m drawing unfair conclusions based on quotes taken out of context, but where The Crying Light falls down is in a similar failure to go deeper. For all its moments of brilliance, it doesn’t achieve anything its predecessor didn’t and carries itself with less grace and fewer memorable songs.

Best tracks: Dust and Water, Another World

Catch Antony and the Johnsons on tour:

21/05 Brighton Dome Concert Hall (Brighton Festival) SOLD OUT

22/05 Birmingham Symphony Hall

24/05 Bristol Colston Hall

27/05 London Hammersmith Apollo

29/05 Gateshead The Sage

31/05 Dublin Vicar St SOLD OUT

01/06 Belfast Waterfront

04/06 Edinburgh Playhouse

03/07-04/07 Manchester Opera House (Manchester International Festival)