Another World [EP]

This EP, a teaser of what to expect from the full-length album scheduled for January, sees the vocalist reining in some of his more histrionic tendencies while expanding his palette of influences and sounds.

If we are going to go, the magnificently mournful title track of this EP may as well be the soundtrack.

We all know a little something about chasing that ideal version of ourselves, and Antony's persistence in the face of futility makes it a joy to run by his side.

While we can never expect you to change your approach to music, Antony, we can still appreciate that your words are now infused with the strength of assuredness and hope. May it be a short wait to "The Crying Light."

Another World is under 20 minutes long, but it’s more than a placeholder. It’s the portrait of an artist as a changeling, moving above and beyond his former skill-set.

They stick to the band's strict formula of melodic, thematic, well written music.

From the tentative piano chords that open the gorgeous title track, the EP never wavers from a tone of frail melancholy, sketching out a handful of dirges in arrangements that are unusually spare by The Johnsons' standards. [Year End 2008, p.88]

Maybe not an essential purchase, but if you're already counting the days down until the official third album The Crying Light is released in January, this should more than satisfy you.

'Shake the Devil' purrs with a Ray Charles-worthy retro R&B beat and the furious nonvegan chorus of 'Shake that Pig!' [Nov 2008, p.88]

It's a typical "kitchen sink" EP, stocked with enough stabs at bawdy blue rave-ups ('Shake That Devil'), oddball narratives ('Hope Mountain'), and plaintive reveries ('Crackagen' and 'Sing for Me') to tide fans over until the headliner arrives.

Another World desperately labors to keep fans satiated and ends up overburdened, somewhere nicely between all its scattered intentions.

I wouldn't put it past Another World to grow on me, as Hegarty is one of those vocalists (like Tom Waits and Daniel Johnston) whose work initially strikes you as the weirdest fucking thing you've ever heard but magically becomes something you can't live without a couple of listens later, but rather than being as starkly demure and affecting as "Bird," Another World just seems underwhelming.