I Am a Bird Now

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-05-12 rating:
Oh God it's good
This is the most beautiful voice I have ever heard. It grabs you by the throat and never lets you go. It is a cry for freedom and I love every last second of it. I could listen to Antony all day, only maybe it is a little morbid at times. I'm not religious but I think that if a God existed he would make music like this.

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review by: date: 2008-04-13 rating:
Incandescent Exposure
One thing leads to another.

Occasionally.

Join up the dots and sometimes what's left turns out to be
more than the sum of its' parts.

Mr Wainwright; Ms Wasser; Ms Gudmundsdottir; Mr Hegarty.

Sometimes we invite Outsiders to come in from the cold to warm themselves
for a while by our firesides.
We welcome them even though the icy draught that follows
through the doorway challenges us in our comfort zone.

Listening to Anthony Hegarty is not a comfortable experience.
Bearing witness to another's pain should raise ambivalence.
Should I be listening ? Should I be watching ?

These ten songs dig deep into the heart and soul of one
man's experience. Confessional doesn't quite describe it.
It's more of a motorway pileup of emotions with me in this
moment as an all too willing witness.

Once you're here it's impossible to turn a blind eye.

Violence; loss; confusion; shame; self-hatred/forgiveness;
exposure; alienation; transformation; valediction.

Somewhere over a rainbow?

The opening bars of 'Hope There's Someone' shook me to my core.
The otherworldly vibrato cuts like a knife.
Skin and sinew and blood and bone all blown apart in this
brave existential prayer.

"Hope there's someone
Who'll take care of me
When I die.... "

A hope we all share , surely ?

That these thoughts and emotions found the light of day
in song is ultimately good cause for celebration.

Extraordinary.

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review by: Hope springs eternal date: 2007-11-03 rating:
Beautiful
Anthony is a genious, his voice is haunting, a classical masterpiece, his musical talent is unique. The Johnsons provide the perfect accompaniment, the timing is exemplary. I love Anthony and the Johnsons. Dont expect to be instantly transfixed, i wasn't; Anthony is very unusual sometimes operatic, tranny or eunuch-sounding but a REAL GROWER, hang in there it is pure talent. I have all his stuff and cant wait for whatever he can do next.. would love to see them live.

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review by: date: 2007-09-23 rating:
Hauntingly, and classically beautiful!

Every now and again an act will capture my attention on TV. This was a late night show that I saw, and what appeared to be a live concert, and I was repeatedly drawn to this guy's voice and the sincerity in which he uses it to convey the lyrics. I was thoroughly captivated, then sold, and just had to purchase the album!

It is a beautifully classical collection of melancholic songs that are sung with a great use of the piano that is not often heard today, and few artistes ever sing with such sincerity anymore... On two of the tracks in particular, you will hear the haunting, emotional and almost 'tragic' sound beautifully mixed together - these are 'You Are My Sister' and 'What Can I Do'.

I guess all great works have at least one flaw, and in this particular case in my opinion is the inclusion of the track: 'Free At Last'. I could not figure this one out; I didn't understand it, and could not make out why it was there... This song does not belong on this album.

The singer has a truly unique and wonderful voice, but when seen in concert, does appear to have to strain in order to produce it. Fabulous stuff though!

Five stars!




review by: date: 2007-09-03 rating:
what a shame
amount of tracks:10
excellent:0
v.good:0
good:0
fair:10
poor:0

on the strength of this acts very interesting and often sublime debut album, i had to buy the much lauded follow up - the one that won the dubious mercury prize
so......things have changed - for the worse. firstly, as if he'd magically read my review of his first album (!), anthony has changed his voice! gone is the simone-esqe rich and dark vibe to be replaced with something altogether more warbling and irritating. the music suffers too - the instrumentation and orchestral arrangements are not a patch on the debut which is full of very interesting twists and turns and some lovely melodies. the songs themselves are not as strong either and the lyrical content has gone from inspired as per the debut, to something obviously more personal to anthony. whereas before we had a fascinating kind of emotional surrealism we've now got anthony mainly trying to convey his sexual hang-ups, which , personally, i could have done without! - add to all this the appearance of the ever-wretched boy george and the whole thing is a bit of a comedown.
its not all doom and gloom though. i still rate this act very highly and am prepared to just suffer this as a lacklustre follow up to a great debut - at least, lets hope so - hopefully anthony will find his direction again and by the third album will be surprising us again. this , however, is substandard stuff and doesnt warrant the aforementioned mercury prize, but then again, look at the pitiful competition he was up against and its not too surprising! i'll await the third release until i place final judgement on this act. until then, i'll ignore this and keep playing the debut - and i suggest you do too.

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