If you had any questions as to whether you are going to enjoy this album or not than just listen to the live performance on Letterman last night. Hagerty adds in another verse and the beginning and, along with some help from Shaffer’s horn section, makes “Thank You For Your Love” a much more user friendly track from the album version.

Antony and The Johnsons – “Flétta”

This will be the third time that Antony Hegarty and Björk have teamed up on a track. “The Dull Flame of Desire” and “My Juvenile” both appeared on Björk’s latest album Volta and were highlights of it. Both Hegarty and Björk are able to join pop and classical almost flawlessly with the delicate piano line that accompanies their unique voices.

Björk is truly the feature on the  track and not just a special guest. She takes the lead for most of the song until Hegarty joins in at the climax to add in his own special flair. I’m not sure what language they’re singing in exactly but, of course, my suspicion would be Icelandic.

Swanlights is out October 12th on Secretly Canadian.

S. Carey – All We Grow (Jagjaguwar)
Ra Ra Riot – The Orchard (Barsuk Records)
Antony and The Johnsons – Thank You For Your Love (Secretly Canadian)
The Tallest Man On Earth – Shallow Grave (Dead Oceans) reissue
Les Savy Fav – Root For Ruin (Frenchkiss)
!!! – Strange Weather, Isn’t It? (Warp)
Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher (Saddle Creek)
Dead Confederates – Sugar (TAO Recordings)
Fitz & the Tantrums – Pickin’ Up The Pieces (Dangerbird)
Young Man – Boy EP (Frenchkiss)

Before the release of Swanlights on October 11th Antony and The Johnsons are releasing a 5 track EP that features the official first single, “Thank You For Your Love” as well as four tracks that won’t appear on the album. They include covers of John Lennon’s “Imagine” (which Antony flips around to be in first person), Bob Dylan’s “Pressing On”,  The Crying Light‘s bonus track “My Lord My Love” and a brand new track “You Are The Treasure”. I am very excited about this track list. Two new songs, two covers and a bonus track. What else could you ask for?

The EP officially comes out August 24th but if you’d like a sneak peak then head over to People Music Store where you can stream the entire album but don’t stray too far from your computer because their media player pauses every 30 seconds. Annoying.

Believe it or not the album cover is actually a picture of Antony Hagerty of when he arrived in New York City in the 90′s.

Antony and The Johnsons – “Thank You For Your Love”

The album promises to be “Antony’s most wide-rangingly emotional work to date”. The press release describes it far better than I can.

“Everything is New” opens the album with a newborn piano melody that quickly gathers in momentum and excitement. Strings and bursts of percussion carry the song forward in a feral cacophony of sound. Later on the album, the title track  “Swanlights” finds us navigating a primordial and hallucinatory world of hazy guitar tones. The enigmatic layered melody of “Swanlights” emerges from a glistening soundscape. A central image on the album, Antony explains what he means by the word “Swanlights”:  ”It’s the reflection of light on the surface of the water at night. It’s the moment when a spirit jumps out of a body and turns into a violet ghost.”  On “Thank You For Your Love”, Antony expresses a soul-infused sentiment of gratitude, but the song progresses into urgency, leaving behind the 4/4 rhythmic structure and breaking into an emotional gallop that reveals an underlying pathos.

01. Everything is New
02. The Great White Ocean
03. Ghost
04. I’m In Love
05. Violetta
06. Swanlights
07. The Spirit Was Gone
08. Thank You For Your Love
09. Flétta (feat. Björk)
10. Salt Silver Oxygen
11. Christina’s Farm

This isn’t the first time that Antony and Björk have collaborated. Antony lent his pipes to Björk’s “The Dull Flame of Desire” on her 2007 release Volta.

The announcement was made yesterday that we can expect a new album out of Antony and The Johnsons this coming October 6th via Secretly Canadian (the 5th in Europe on Rough Trade). The album will be called Swanlights and will have a special edition release that will include a 144 page book featuring paintings, collages, photography, and writings by Antony. Unfortunately there isn’t a new song or tracklist yet, just the album art cover above.

2009′s The Crying Light was the album that really turned me onto Antony. It took repeated listens and a good amount of time for me to get use to his vocals and thick, lush orchestrations but now I’m glad that I did.

Some musicians are just more inaccessible to the listening public than others. For example, Antony and The Johnsons. It takes a certain person to be able to appreciate the novelty and brilliance of Antony Hegarty but for most the listening experience ends just a few minutes into the first song and then they give up thinking that it’s just too out of their comfort zone. For those people may I present The Irrepressibles.

Coming from the same vein as Antony, The Irrepressibles present the same level of grandeur and drama – both in music and performance – that Antony does but in a less expansive and distracting way. People that aren’t able to fully wrap their arms around Antony should give a listen to The Irrepressibles and might be surprised when they find themselves enamored by what they hear.

The Irrepressibles – “In This Shirt”

This performance truly highlights Hegarty’s voice and presents it in a way that most can appreciate what amazing pipes he really has. Every person that I let listen to The Crying Light tends to cringe and scoff but if I played them “Epilepsy Is Dancing” (embedded below) and after they were done scoffing played them “Nessum Dorma” they would never guess that it was the same performer. Not because Hegarty changes his vocal fluctuations or that tell tale vibrato but because this is the voice that people associate with opera, not baroque-pop.

You can read the little press release here.

Antony Hegarty – “Nessum Dorma”

El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodrigues Lopez – Cryptomnesia
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Deer Tick – War Elephant
John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
Dan Deacon – Bromst
Bishop Allen – Grrr…
Antony and The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Other Lives – Other Live
Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas – Songs To No One

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to pick up these albums then the time has arrived.

(props to my sister for feeding me this link)

Just last week I missed Bat For Lashes on Letterman and Antony and the Johnsons on Craig Ferguson so I am also posting those videos as an added bonus this week.

David Letterman
Tuesday May 5th – Franz Ferdinand
Thursday May 7th – Animal Collective

Late Late Shoe with Craig Ferguson
Tuesday May 5th – Jenny Lewis

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Wednesday May 6th – Van Morrison

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Monday May 4th – Adele
Wednesday May 6th – The National

Last Call with Carson Daly
Monday May 4th – Lykke Li
Tuesday May 5th – Lily Allen