MUSIC: Antony and the Johnsons

This new york, usa-based chamber cabaret outfit is led by the striking, androgynous figure of singularly named performance artist antony. His unusual background saw him relocating from his native england at the age of 10 to be raised in california, usa. He moved to New York in 1990 to attend the experimental theatre wing at nyu, and before long had become heavily involved in the city's punk drag scene.... This is part of the biography of Antony, the singer and the heart of Antony and the Johnsons band.
Being discovered by Lou Reed for the great audience (including myself), after a guest appearance on Lou Reed´s the raven and tour with him, performing a riveting version of "Candy Says" in the middle of Reed´s set. The following year Antony and the Johnsons complete their second album I am a bird now an amazing album. The incredible voice of Antony is the protagonist of the album, featuring guests of honour such as Lou Reed, Devendra Banhart, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright, a warm, intimate, human portrait of his obsessions that seemed to be the exact antithesis of the debut album (Antony & the Johnsons- 2000). The music is based in arrangements of strings and piano, in fact in many concerts Antony playes the piano and only Julia Kent´s cello playes with him. But is the voice of Antony, a voice that embodies romanticism like few great voices in the past. The cover of the album is a 1974 photo of Andy Warhol superstar Candy Darling, a melancholy but arrestingly beautiful image, it depicts Darling on her deathbed.
I am sure that this may be one of those "love it or hate it" cases, an album that I´m consider the discovery of the last year, and I hope that Antony don´t looses his incredible identity in the next album.
Try to listen one of the greatests albums of the last years, and then tell me if you love or hate Antony, the Voice.

Part of the text take of the official page of Antony and the Johnsons