the beautiful people vol 3 - Antony And The Johnsons

Antony And The Johnsons. I know it’s impossible to be immune to surprises in the world of music, but the fact is there is nothing happening that actually surprises me like Antony has. “Hope there’s someone” brought me down to tears the first time I heard it. I had heard of him through Davide and Ricardo who kept praising Antony’s second album “I am a bird now”. I kept postponing listening to it until the day arrived.

It is indeed a splendid album.

Its listening is as painful as it is superb. Like a Lars Von Trier film playing with your emotions, the difference being that Antony And The Johnsons don’t do it intentionally and make you want to listen to it again and again - as for Von Trier movies on the other hand, once is enough.

Beginning with the cover picturing Candi Darling on her death bed, the album is by itself a coherent exercise on music and image aesthetics. Then his voice brilliant escorted by The Johnsons instruments make this a unique experience.

There are such pearls as the above mentioned “hope there’s someone”, as well as “my lady story” and “for today I am a boy”. Lots of collaboration of modern music heroes, such as Lou Reed in “fistful of love”, Rufus Wainwright in “what can I do?”, Boy George in “you are my sister”, and Devendra Barnhart in “spiralling”.

At the Primavera Sound festival, in a small Auditorium, being sitted in front of him was a truly unique experience