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I Am A Bird Now Image
Metascore
88

Universal acclaim - based on 30 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 271 Ratings

  • Summary: The androgynous singer Antony is backed by the likes of Lou Reed, Devendra Banhart, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright on his sophomore release.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 30
  3. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Rolling Stone
    80
    Even in duets with [Wainwright and Boy George], Antony is the dominant voice of solitude and agonized waiting. [10 Feb 2005, p.84]
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 25 out of 172
  1. Jun 16, 2018
    10
    The most beautiful album that I've heard in my whole life . So deep untouchable
  2. birdg
    Sep 30, 2005
    10
    nadrealni, postapokalipti?ni gotski kabare... plo?a izvan svih
  3. Sydney
    Feb 20, 2005
    10
    desperately beautiful
  4. joshc
    Jan 7, 2006
    10
    so pretty.
  5. Lola
    Nov 2, 2005
    9
    I woke up to my radio alarm with Antony singing on NPR. I burst into tears. It's so beautiful. And I'm a jaded old broad. Passed I woke up to my radio alarm with Antony singing on NPR. I burst into tears. It's so beautiful. And I'm a jaded old broad. Passed him around and everybody loves him. My friend played him to her mother on her deathbed and then she died, hearing Antony as her last sounds on earth. That seems right to me. Expand
  6. DavidM
    Aug 19, 2005
    8
    Definitely different from everything else out there, best tracks (HOPE THERE'S SOMEONE, SPIRALLING, FISTFUL OF LOVE) mesmerizing, but Definitely different from everything else out there, best tracks (HOPE THERE'S SOMEONE, SPIRALLING, FISTFUL OF LOVE) mesmerizing, but much of the albums middle sags. A solid album, but feel many of the reviews over impressed with the quality of Antony's voice as opposed to the quality of the songs, much as with Jeff Buckley's overpraised Grace. The middle section here really sags. Download the three songs listed here, and maybe MY LADY STORY, and save yourself from purchasing full CD. Expand
  7. LennyD
    Mar 27, 2005
    0
    Shockingly dull and highly overrated. Very reminiscent in style of Mick Hucknall: Simply red.

See all 172 User Reviews