broken blossoms

Maybe because its stately songs sound like Antony and the Johnsons reaching deeper into the realm of life's melancholic abstractions, The Crying Light already engaged me more on my first few weeks of listening than I Am A Bird Now (2005) ever did. No rinky-dink celebrity walk-ins like before but the musicians backing the singer filled in most admirably with their classicist-like restraint, providing these songs that broach into mortality's mysteries with its singular force - no small task considering that Antony Hegarty's startlingly mournful voice is the obvious linchpin of these chamber pop ballads ("One Dove" and "Another World" are the standouts in that mold). On the gorgeously orchestrated The Crying Light, Antony reins in his expressive range as if eager for us listeners to slowly take in the strength of these new compositions (likewise, the lyrics written are more economical). The haunting quietude of "Dust And Water" is especially moving, while the broken-blossom soulfulness of "Aeon" elevates The Crying Light into the medicated fog of a phantasmic waking dream.