The 2005 Mercury Award-winning I Am a Bird Now launched avant-garde/cabaret/chamber pop king/queen Antony into the near mainstream with its lush and heavily orchestrated outsider torch songs. Three years later, fresh from projects with Björk, Todd Haynes, and Charles Atlas, Antony and the Johnsons return with Another World, a five-song teaser EP for the group's forthcoming Crying Light album. As usual, Antony's gorgeous, mournful voice is the centerpiece, especially on the EP's namesake, a sparse, piano-led ballad that finds the singer spilling a list of his "favorite things" that he'll regret not being able to take with him into the next life. From there 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.
© James Christopher Monger /TiVo