The woman walks as fast as she can, and is carrying her small suitcase. She is waiting for the right train, she suddenly turns back and notices something but she doesn’t bother looking too much. Her body language tells that she is not interested in such a complicated, artistic art cover of the new Antony and the Johnsons album, ‘Swanlights’.

The transformation of a moth to a butterfly, like the transformation of a man to a woman in the first two records, ’Antony and the Johnsons’ (1998) and ‘I Am a Bird Now’ (2005), the experimental very independent music band gives us a very catchy album. At their highest point this reaches the epic emotional songs such as “Thank You for Your Love”, “The Great White Ocean” and the killer queen of the album “Fletta”, where singer Antony Hegarty meets with a creepy form of angel voice, Bjork.

Repeating ‘ Thank You’ for a hundred times on the first single and likewise his same obsession in repeating ‘Everything is New’ in the opener, Antony and The Johnsons blends all their skills up to this time, to produce their music flawlessly, releasing the best album of the year.

I lean against to the Swanlight art cover in the tube station, and went onto my train. There were this lyrics playing in my ears ‘When my mind was broken into a thousand pieces…’

Rating: 9/10

Videos and Mp3s:
The Spirit Was Gone, directed by Peter Sempel.
Thank You for Your Love, Shot by Antony, edited by David Boatman.
The Spirit Was Gone, MP3