By Jacqueline Hlavenka

By definition, the world of Antony and the Johnsons is not exactly pleasant. There are corpses (“Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground”), lust (“Kiss My Name”), the unborn (“Aeon”) and loneliness and nightmares (“One Dove”). As a vocalist, Antony has come a long way from emulating Boy George and Lou Reed. On “The Crying Light,” Antony continues to play between the duality of light and darkness, sin and redemption, desire and yearning. Audiophiles everywhere have a reason to rejoice: “The Crying Light” is the first great album of 2009.

What is Antony’s biggest redeeming quality is his extraordinary ability to use the voice as an instrument. The lush, tremulous “Epilepsy is Dancing” is a dreamlike waltz that delves into the beauty of the natural world and the bizarre. It’s all here: there’s snow, fire, ice, glitter and gold that meld together with Antony’s signature vibrato. There is a larger focus on the universe as a whole on “The Crying Light” in comparison to 2005’s “I Am A Bird Now.” Both albums are obsessed with sadness, but where “The Crying Light” succeeds is in its ability to hope rather than lament. One of the album’s standout songs, “Another World,” is a journey that reaches far beyond the scope of the self. When Antony sings “I need another world/this one’s nearly gone.” one wants to go with him. It is a departure from reality (“I’m gonna miss the bees/miss the things that grow”) that transcends into an unexplainable, ethereal kingdom.

Antony is still trying to find his place on “Everglade” (“I’m home, my heart sobs in veins/but brains play the softest games”) but it is the sincerity of Antony’s voice that makes his discoveries all the more convincing. He’s still searching, but the destination is there. Don’t let the cover art, which features a striking image of aging dancer Kazuo Ohno, scare you away: “The Crying Light” is a return to art song that won’t burn out.