All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Playlouder

I don't know when a voice touched me as wholly as Antony's does.

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100

Tiny Mix Tapes

Whereas Antony and The Johnsons was a stark, chilling affair that was arresting and perhaps a little disconcerting, this album is a shining beacon of hope and healing amidst ceaseless pangs of heartache and loss.

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100

Mojo

This is tough, honest, uncompromising beauty and the next great voice in music. [Apr 2005, p.86]

100

Drowned In Sound

I Am A Bird Now is a beautiful, emotive, glorious, and sometimes sinister album that will top many a critic's list come the end-of-year polls, and justifiably so.

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Spin

Scarily intimate and irresistibly beautiful. [Mar 2005, p.92]

Neumu.net

As whole, the record is hardly notable for its special guests; the beauty of Antony's singing, the ferociousness of his delivery, the profundity of his songs, and the unflinching nature make the disc truly transcend such.

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The Wire

This could have been camp on a Himalayan scale. Its strength is that it's anything but. [#255, p.51]

Splendid

I Am a Bird Now is a sweet, sumptuous brace of noir-laced cabaret pop, distinctly out of step with just about every other album released this year.

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No Ripcord

This will surely be counted as one of the most remarkable, individual, and adorable albums of the year.

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Lost At Sea

The whole of the album is stunning and unique, and if the thematic gender-bending core of the album makes a few people ideologically shy away, then it’s truly a shame.

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New York Magazine

A profoundly emotional, uncynical brand of songwriting that showcases Antony’s obsession with nature.

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Los Angeles Times

With this second full album, the singer and songwriter stakes a claim on a unique and fascinating turf, a sort of avant-cabaret musical theater that embraces a David Lynch-like moodiness and experimental-folk mystery, intimate confession and theatrical grandeur. [20 Mar 2005]

Pitchfork

The ultimate draw is Antony's voice, and within the first two seconds of the album, it should be very clear to even the most unaware newbies that Antony has an amazing Nina Simone/Brian Ferry/Jimmy Scott vibrato, a multi-octave siren that would sound painfully lovely no matter what he was saying. Lucky for us, he fills that promise with worthy syllables.

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Entertainment Weekly

It could have been mawkish, but the sentiments--and Antony's trembling falsetto--are so honest, you love it despite your jaded self. [4 Feb 2005, p.133]

Rolling Stone

Even in duets with [Wainwright and Boy George], Antony is the dominant voice of solitude and agonized waiting. [10 Feb 2005, p.84]

All Music Guide

Haunting and affecting.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Antony's musical presence haunts and hypnotizes long after he's left the stage.

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Billboard

The true star is Antony's raw, emotional voice, one in which you can almost hear actual feelings being conveyed.

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Dusted Magazine

You get the impression that the artist is truly a giving soul, even if his gift is in the form of an emotionally wrenching, uncomfortably confessional record.

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The Guardian

Majestic while confronting his mortal fears on the gospel-hued Hope There's Someone, childlike and life-affirming on For Today I Am a Boy, he is never less than a class act.

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Uncut

His voice must be heard to be believed. [Apr 2005, p.105]

ShakingThrough.net

I Am A Bird Now is a beautiful-sounding record, and though it doesn’t contain anything as remarkable and emotionally piercing as the debut’s “Cripple and the Starfish,” it nonetheless reveals a band and lead artist refining a musical universe populated by drag queens, cabaret dancehalls and a tolerant and open community.

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Trouser Press

Antony and the talented Johnsons brilliantly evoke the grandeur and dolor of cocktail hour ennui.

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Prefix Magazine

Antony has found a voice that expresses what it feels like to be trapped in that gray area between misery and rage.

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Q Magazine

His simple, unadorned songs of longing, belonging and love are so striking that contributions from such distinctive guests... pass almost unnoticed. [Apr 2005, p.118]

Paste Magazine

Antony flourishes like a rare orchid in a New York hothouse, brandishing his voice like so many delicate petals. [#14, p.120]

cokemachineglow

For what it lacks in consistency, I Am A Bird Now gains in being, even at its most tedious of moments, an interesting and thematically compelling listen.

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Blender

These bluesy spirituals are so raw they bleed. [Mar 2005, p.136]

New Musical Express

Guaranteed to leave you speechless, one way or another. [12 Mar 2005, p.58]

Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

Not only is his willingness to express emotion commoner than indie denizens imagine, his failure to undercut that emotion with irony or humor is a spiritual weakness.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 224 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John M. gave it a5:
The voice is remarkable - the songs are not. The relentless focus on Antony's gender issues is just tiring - what is initially touching becomes beaten down after awhile. It would probably be just as irritating if it was heterosexual and so narrowly focused, for those ready to claim bias. Bottom line: everyone should listen to this album once and know this voice exists, but unless you find yourself connecting personally with his sense of being ostracized, it is mostly a curiosity.

Jan gave it a10:
An outstanding beautiful voice, very good instrumentalists and some unbelievable touching lyrics. I like to listen to this songs a real lot from time to time. 10 points from me.

Maiken gave it a10:
I just can't believe how beautiful this album is. It's .. stunning. I just don't have words.

tino gave it a10:
to feel to know to infuse to perceive to resonate in the god-given voice of mozart stuck in [that] "middle place between light and nowhere" is to beathe, grieve and love robustly ethereal ANTONY may love always overflow your painful heart

Steve R gave it a10:
What's not To Like? this is a haunting and utterly beautiful masterpiece, nothing less. no one else has done this, ever, and this was THE album of 2005, no doubt.

Bernadette D gave it a10:
All of the people who hated this album had nothing constructive to say>Criticism is supposed to be constructive,not just ignorant drivel.You all must be emotionally barren and bereft.This album is the best thing ever.Antonys voice would make you cry.For the person who claimed he could sing like antony if he wanted to;I don't think so mate,not in a million years.

Michel NL gave it a10:
At first, when I heard some of the songs from this album through the PC speakers of my colleague, the sound really annoyed me. What kind of fake, drag-queen voice is this? OMG.. Yes, I do have some minor homophobic issues, sorry - can't help it yet but well that's me. Then, a few weeks later I started to look out for new music on several music review sites and played many of the high-rated unknown CD's/artists in YouTube, hoping to find good vitamin M. Of course, there was Antony and the Johnsons and I recognised the drag-queen sound again. But now, being in the ambience of my living-room, I deceided to give it a fair chance and listened carefully without prejudice. I discovered that Antony has a stunning voice, actually. Initially I didn't want to admit it, but I just can't keep telling to myself that someting is yellow whilst it's clearly green. So a few days later I deceided to buy the CD I'm a bird now.. I have it for 2-3 weeks and I've played it maybe 6,7 times Everytime this music gives me shivers, which is actually quite rare for me. And it only seems getting better. Unfortunately I am not a native English speaker, hence I probably cannot find the right words to precise my enhousiasm. So I'll just write what I literally think when I listen to it: "Wooooow...This album is f*ck*ng gorgeous man!!!" I cannot imagine how a music album is getting any better than this. Different maybe, but rarely better. Giving it less than a 10 would be a matter of principles, not of absolute appreciation. I'm going to play it again guys, right now. I'm in love. Although I really don't want to be ;-)

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