Swanlights

VINYL FORMAT. Antony and the Johnsons present their new album, Swanlights, via Secretly Canadian. The album is a continuation of Antony's work exploring environmental issues and his connection to the natural world. While I Am a Bird Now was arresting in its simplicity and vision, and The Crying Light is a masterpiece of austerity, Swanlights may be Antony's most wide-ranging, emotional work to date. It is a record that is at moments excruciating and tender, and at other times has a wicked gleam to its teeth. Musically it's the most maximal of his work to date. Whereas on The Crying Light, Antony paired everything back to its most distilled and essential, on Swanlights the vines have become overgrown and the sound palette has become more exotic: strange percussive elements, John Cale-esque string drones, heavily distorted guitars and symphonic voicings thread the song cycle together. Swanlights is the fourth Antony and the Johnsons album and the follow up to the critically acclaimed smash The Crying Light, which topped year-end best of lists across the globe in 2009. Antony burst into the international spotlight with his second album, I Am a Bird Now. Swanlights, meanwhile, includes the song "Flétta," a duet with Björk!