The golden voiced former Cher impersonator Antony & The Johnstons will be releasing his fourth studio album, entitled Swanlights on October 8th via Spunk Records and I couldn’t be more excited. The project, which represents the work of Lou Reed collaborator Antony Hegarty and whoever else he drags along, is spellbinding. 2005’s I Am A Bird Now, which won him the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize, would have to be of my favourite albums of all time, and even though he released his latest album only a year ago, the masterful The Crying Light, I’m getting wet in anticipation of this.
But wait it gets better. Not only does the special edition of the album include a 144-page art book containing his artwork, photography and writing, and while this will probably be the sort of tedious collection of vaguely artistic ramblings stapled to a release to convince people to buy it rather than downloading it, I’m still keen to have a look. Another incentive to buy the album only version of Swanlights is Flétta, and no that’s not a Swedish goat cheese, but rather a duet with Bjork.
Antony and Bjork!? If you’re not excited about this you need to sort your shit out. This is definitely one special edition album I’ll be buying/begging a record label to send me.
