Anthony and the Johnsons - Another World (Rough Trade)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Antony Hegarty is a man for whom quality control is paramount. Three and a half years since the release of his breakthrough, Mercury Prize winning I Am A Bird Now, this is precisely the right time for another album. Protests in the street, instigated by myself, have demanded it. But this is an EP. There are only five tracks ready, so that's all you get. He'll be along again when he wants you to hear more. Patience never hurt you. Patience is a virtue.
There is however enough substance to the Another World EP to comfortably class it as an album. This is a record the depth to which borders on intimidating. As if to emphasise the parallels that can be drawn between this release and a full blown LP, it starts very much as the last album did, 'Another World' echoing I Am A Bird Now opener 'Hope There's Someone's worries about the narrator's own impending death. It's quite possibly because the topics dealt with here are either so opaque or quite so weighty that even a mere five tracks worth of a release can pack such an emotional punch, and irrevocably suck the fun completely out of one's day.
"I'm going to miss the sea, going to miss the snow... I need another world, this one's nearly gone. I'm going to miss the birds singing all their songs, I'm going to miss the wind, been kissing me so long..." Hegarty, you soppy sod. It is, clearly however, all about the delivery with this dude. And as anyone who has cocked half an ear to the fellow's voice is immediately aware, Antony is a grand master of delivery, instilling quite simplistic and potentially wussy lyrics with a crushing emotional mass.
So far, so I Am A Bird Now. It's undeniable that he is just revisiting old ground here. But one of the nicest things about that landmark record was that it didn't feel like Antony had exhausted all the possibilities of the field in which he was working. There is much life in these sounds and in these themes, and 'Another World' proves it conclusively. Its follow up continues in a sonically similar vein. It's 'Crakagen', and it's fine. It's reportedly around nine years old, one of his earliest compositions. It's nothing different. But it means there's another Antony song in the world. So it's fine.
'Shake That Devil' however is utterly astounding. It's Antony out of his comfort zone, utilising all kinds of slow drones, noisy guitars and genuinely quite disturbing, murderous imagery (OK, so nothing new there). But just as it appears as if the song is going to be one of the most experimental in his enviable canon, midway through it slips in to a brilliant call and response, bluesy, jazzy, raspy structure. Out of, like, nowhere. The bleakest nowhere you can imagine. The astonishing thing - much like on Tom Waits' 'Shore Leave' from Swordfishtrombes - is how exhilarating it is to hear him working within an easily detectable framework but pressing as hard as his chubby little arms allow against each of its restricting parameters.
So from there on in, with one new beautiful ballad and one description defying (the preceding paragraph doesn't do it justice - its first draft used the world 'astounding' three times) career peak already delivered, he can spend the remaining couple of tracks doing what he wants for all I care. What he does, 'Sing For Me', ends up sounding lovely, of course - that was never in doubt. It's mournful and it's on a piano and it's wobbly and wounded, but it's Antony and the Johnsons for crissakes. Get your math pop from Deerhoof, and just revel in how gently those strings are making you upset.
Things end, as all things have to. This thing ends on 'Hope Mountain' - "the place where people come to cry". It does that lovely thing where he sings the lead in his best baritone whilst multi layered supernatural Antonys sing in high register like a plump but ghostly choir behind him. You can imagine them peaking over his shoulder, half in menace and half in mischief, whilst he's sat at the piano, before the harsh blows of brass towards the song's climax create a gust that blows them clean outta the window.
Out of that window, on the horizon, you will see a new album. Another World, despite its myriad charms, is essentially just a teaser. The title track of this is the lead single from The Crying Light, the new album proper. We are being played with. But far from this EP just being a passable stop-gap effort, Another World's triumph is such that The Crying Light is going to have to be particularly special to beat it.
I reckon he can manage.
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