ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS I Am a Bird Now Rough Trade *****

Long after the CD fades, Antony's voice continues to echo over and over again in your memory. The most lonesome, delicate, ghostly, mournful, emotional and troubled thing you may ever hear, it's the reason why you will return to this album time and time again to find out more, hear more and experience more. Its trembling beauty will remind you of Nina Simone, Björk, Tim Buckley or Jimmy Scott at their most expressive, but the songs which Antony sings tell far different, far sadder tales.

Born in England and raised in California, Antony says his life really began when he moved to New York in 1990 and began to hang out on the downtown performance art scene. Antony spent years on the cabaret beat in seedy clubs before Lou Reed brought him to a wider audience by taking him on tour in 2003. Despite the sorrows which it details, I Am a Bird Now is soft and delicate, each song sympathetically framed with the barest and simplest of musical fringes. After all, you really only need a fluttering piano or sleepy strings to punctuate torch songs like these.

Whether it's the aching wishes on Hope There's Someone or the trans-sexual woes of My Lady Story, Antony's multi-octave voice that always takes the lead. Not even a galaxy of guests (Devendra Banhart, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Boy George) can take from this. Music of exceptional heart and soul. www.antonyandthejohnsons.com

Jim Carroll