Some records are immediately accessible and easy to digest in a short period of time, other records take weeks, months, maybe even years to plumb the depths of and grasp in full. Antony & The Johnsons "Swanlights" is the latter. So anything I write here is going to be cursory at best, since even after two weeks of listening to "Swanlights" I am really only just beginning to unpack its contents. All of Antony's familiar themes are here: nature, mortality, transformation and rebirth. He begins and ends the album declaring that "everything is new," after, of course, a cycle of physical and/or metaphorical death and rebirth. That part of the album is fairly easy to grasp. And, par for the course, Antony's preternatural voice elevates his sometimes knotty naturalistic poetry to heights unimaginable by other artists, but this is what we have come to expect from an Antony & the Johnsons album. Even though each of these characteristics are extraordinary in comparison to other artists, for Anthony & the Johnsons these kind of achievements are just another day at the office. Where "Swanlights" gets heady is in the album's expansive and often complex musical compositions which back and complement Antony's vocals. The group draws on a vast musical pallete to create a far less accessible record than before, but one that is deeply rewarding. Following "I Am A Bird's" concise, baroque pop approach, Antony & the Johnsons have been moving further and further away from "Bird's" soul and pop underbelly toward 20th century classical music and experimentalism, "Swanlight" is the culmination of that shift away from conventional song structures toward something more resembling Talk Talk's "Laughing Stock."
Most of the album adopts an incredibly minimalistic approach, rather than overblown orchestrations. "Everything Is New" begins the album with subtle plucked strings and piano before expanding every so slightly with understated violin and percussion. Yet there is an odd dynamism throughout the song that finds the group playing feverishly at times, even while maintaining a generally restrained approach. "The Great White Ocean" is, at heart, an acoustic ballad, but stripped down to the point that it verges on formlessness. "Ghosts," on the other hand, leaps immediately from the speakers with a Steve Reich-like motif, but grows sparser as more spacious piano and strings come to characterize the piece before returning to the frantic repetitive minimalism of the intro. The album's first half ends with the springlike "I'm In Love" that features a cacophony of instrumentation centering around organ, woodwinds and percussion that juxtaposes the repetition of 20th century minimalism with the sway and swoon of more romantic idioms. It's the musical equivalent of a blossoming flower, or a butterfly emerging from the cocoon, but again it is ever so subtle as the band continues to resist a maximalist approach.
The album's centerpiece, and highlight, is the title track. "Swanlights" begins with Antony singing "living is such a golden thing" over a somewhat menacing guitar drone. Halfway through the song a stately piano progression cuts the atmosphere, and Antony's layered vocals grow more soulful and powerful. It's really a simple piece once you dissect it, but it's also the album's most powerful moment. "The Spirit Was Gone" follows and maintains the darker approach of "Swanlights" with skeletal piano and strings backing Antony's lyrical meditation on mortality.
The album's single 'conventional' moment comes with the excellent "Thank You For Your Love." Reminiscent of "I Am A Bird's" brighter moments, "Thank You" swings like an old Lou Reed track before the band works themselves into a mild frenzy of vocals, horns and galloping drums. The album returns to a meditative stance with "Fietta," featuring Bjork on vocals backed by Antony. The song vacillates between haunting sparseness and lively purpose, and is generally what you would expect from such a pairing.
The album closes with the gorgeously melancholic "Christine's Farm." As with much of the album, most of the piece features Antony singing over subdued piano, but the the rhythm that his voice creates as it interacts with the instrumentation is mesmerizing. There is something absolutely hypnotic about the way Antony's almost becomes yet another instrument in the band's arsenal. Throughout "Swanlights," and in particular on "Christine's Farm," the vocals, piano and strings work together to construct a seamless musical movement, where each instrument, vocals included, works to serve and complement every other. It's an effective approach and one that can make for a powerfully moving experience.
Of course, that is what "Swanlights" is ultimately; a powerfully moving experience. I say "of course" because that is what we have come to expect from Antony & the Johnsons by now, and maybe that expectation blunts some of the excitement of "Swanlights." It is undoubtedly an incredibly constructed and profound record, but upon listening to "Thank You For Your Love," one can't help but to wish that Antony would switch things up a bit more. Yes, he has a perfect voice for the kind of classical experimentalism that populates "Swanlights," but he also has an amazingly soulful voice that is served equally well within more conventional pop settings. Both sides of Antony are equally great, I just kind of wish he gave both equal time. Having said that "Swanlights" is a culmination and perfection of Antony's experimental side, and one that will both challenge listeners, and engage them emotionally every step of the way.
"Thank You For Your Love"
"Thank You For Your Love" by Antony and the Johnsons from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.
"Swanlights"
"Christina's Farm"
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