I Am a Bird Now

Just can’t get to it.

Not my thing

I just didn't enjoy any of this. The guy's voice is offensive to listen to. And I have a Lou Reed, a Tom Waits and a Bob Dylan album rated as 5/5 on here so far. Buddy's vocals on this album is just annoying. I don't know who told him that he should maintain the most obnoxious tremolo throughout the entire runtime, but that person should be fired. The only people who actually like it are pretentious vocal coach experts who praise it as "unique" and "tasteful" because they thrive on being contrarian. Elsewhere, the entire album is just aggressively melodramatic. It's the same pace of piano chording and unnecessarily climactic production for the most boring, yawn-inducing music. The final track sealed its 1 star fate, as "Bird Gerhl" or whatever the hell is one of the most annoying things I've heard.

Not my style. Appreciate the difference but not something I want to listen to

ovo je od druge SEKUNDE nepodnošljivo. i pjevanje i tekstovi krindž na jednoj novoj razini za koju sve dosad nisam znao da postoji. pjevač nek se ubije, ionako nije prava trandža ako tako ne skonča

not good

Not my thing

Best Song: Bird Guhl I really didn't like this at all. It just felt boring and melodramatic for no real reason. I am sure there is something to it seeing as it is about the difficulties of being trans, especially in 2005 - even though it isn't really that much better in 2026 when I'm listening to this. But, that message doesn't come through to me as much as vibrato and whining. 1/5.

Terrible. Hated it

Another album by a band or singer I’ve never heard of before. After listening I know why. Yikes.

It had some merits, but the singer's voice did not do it for me personally. All I could hear were lisps and vibrato.

Too much vibrato

Nope. The warbling didn't work for me. This isn't for me.

I felt like this album was quite weak - nothing exciting happened, it wasn't too fun to listen to, but we managed to get through it. It is fairly new, so I assume that it maybe could've definitely done better.

Sorry - I fell asleep

The voice just doesn't work for me PASS

Sorry, but I hated this.

Insanely boring, like listing to open mic poetry with a backing track of a recorded shopping mall piano 2/10

This album sucked. I realized I just don't like vibrato. Spiraling was particularly terrible. I liked the music of bird guhl the best but the vibrato is incessant.

Ik vond het album HOPELESSNESS best aardig van anohni, maar ik kon hier echt niet doorheen komen.

Fuck. No.

OK, what the hell is this? If I'm not cultured enough to get it, I'm glad for it.

Painful and not for the reasons it was meant to be. The voice and vibrato are a tough listen.

This kind of music (singing focused with minimal plain sounding instruments) is probably my least favourite of all

1,1/5

this album sounds like you gave a drunk guy who really loves gospel music and jeff buckley free range with a piano on open mic night

I’m not sure this qualifies as music. At one point I’m pretty sure I heard him singing about being in love with his sister. Whole album was total garbage.

Awful, I mean it, this was terrible

I do like Anohni sometimes (Candy Says cover for example), but I honestly wanted to get the fuck out of this album as fast as possible. Did not like a single song

I don't know what to think of this. Unique is an understatement. It's a lot like gospel music without the gospel and ratchet up the guilt n sadness. There is no denying he has an amazing voice. He leans perhaps a bit too heavily on the vibrato which can be annoying at times. I can see this being good for somebody, but I'm not that someone. I will not be adding any of these gloomy tunes to my playlist.

I hated this from the first moments of the first track and it didn't get any better. I browsed the other reviews and this one is polarizing. A lot of 1-star and 5-star reviews and very little in between. I'm on the 1-star train. It was a very irritating album. The vibrato of the vocals sound forced. The music is very plain and boring. This was one of the worst listens on this list thus far.

Reminiscent of Tiny Tim tiptoeing through the tulips. Depressing on all fronts. Not my cup of tea. While I can appreciate the pain the singer must feel - it unfortunately made it a painful listen as well.

35 minutes of gorgeous music completely ruined my the most obnoxious vibrato vocals I've ever heard.

What the fuck am I listening to? Vocally he/she/it is getting right on my fucking tits. It's just warbling, and not very good warbling. Musically there's nothing offensive, but also nothing outstanding or that marks it as any different from thousands of other artists/albums. Track 4 was my breaking point, I had to turn it off. 1 star only.

??.. no thanks

That vibrating voice was really grating and distracting making this one unlistenable for me. I did somehow listen to the whole thing though, never again!

1.5

too much vibrato

Vocals sound like they were recorded while sat on a washing machine on full blast or some shit

I normally love blue-eyed soul but this isn't doing it for me. Her voice is just someone imitating Nina Simone. I'm not surprised that music critics had to put this in their list though. The lyrics are more like a lecture than song lyrics. I'm sure they are very personal and meaningful, but there's no depth to the words, everything is on the surface. I'm looking forward to this being over. It's like depressing John Legend. Or depressing Boy George. Fistful of Love is good, there's potential here.

Overall: 1/10 I hate to say this but that is probably the single most annoying voice I've heard in my entire life. I truly couldn't stand this and I'm upset that I listened to it. Fav Song: For Today I'm a Boy Least Fav Song: Hope There's Someone

This was so hyped on release and it was shit then and shit now

Weirdest I’ve ever listened to

The backing music was pleasant in a semi-melancholy way. Sort of reminiscent of Lana Del Ray. But the vocal style was absolutely brutal and very off putting. I couldn't finish it.

From Wiki: After it won the 2005 Mercury Prize, the record shot up the UK albums chart from #135 to #16 in one week, the biggest jump in the history of the prize.[2] As of September 2011, UK sales stood at 220,000 copies.[3] I can't for the life of me place my finger on why this album is listed on a list of albums that you must listen to before you die. Not one. Not a single issue. The MacArthur prize is often referred to as the genius prize - this album smacks of genius in all the wrong ways. Regardless of talent, shit music always sounds like shit music when you have a singer singing in a falsetto that sounds like Tiny Tim went mainstream. 1/5

57% Best (a stretch for this album): Fistful Of Love Must-Hear? You can't be serious...

1. hope - 2 2. lady - 1 3. boy - 1 4. baby - 1.5 5. zizter - 1 6. do - 1.5 7. love - 1.5 8. zpiraling - 1.5 9. free - 1 10. bird - 1.5

Not my jam. 1/5

1/2

I really did not enjoy this album at all and I’m noticing I don’t like ‘chamber pop’, it’s too depressing. And I hate the singer’s voice and how vibrate-y it is

Bleating instead of singing is definitely not for me

I really wanted to like this, sonically and lyrically I enjoyed it enough. Hope There's Someone is a beautiful song, but my god this is such a good example of vocals I can’t stand. The vibrato on every single syllable and the weird droning timbre of her voice was just not as captivating or alluring as it's apparently supposed to be, it just got too much after only a couple songs. That is very subjective though, something about my brain doesn't like lower registers, and combined with this specific timbre it's just near unlistenable for me. I actually went on a hunt as I knew I recognised this voice from a Björk song - a bit of searching confirmed that this is the same vocalist featured on The Dull Flame Of Desire and My Juvenile from Björk's album Volta. I can, then, confirm the consistency of my opinion on this person's voice - I have always hated it. The reason I recognised it so viscerally is because it makes me hate those two songs too, and I have listened to a lot of Björk so I don't see it "growing on me" any more than becoming tolerable. She can sing, but I don't like it. It reminds me a bit of jasmine.4.t's vocal style, actually, except hers has a better timbre to it. There was a fair bit of repetition in the lyrics across the whole album, especially For Today I Am A Boy, and I really hate that. No, the meaning is not any cleared now you’ve said the title of the song 57 times. I did like the general atmosphere, the heavy string usage and the cover image is incredibly captivating once you know the context (iykyk, google it). It's quite a sad and dreary album, though, so despite everything else it's not really my thing. But it does take on a more significant meaning since Anohni only came out publicly years after this album. Most: Fistful Of Love, I could actually listen to this one despite the vocals, but Hope There's Someone for the production if the voice were different. Least: For Today I Am A Boy Rating: 1.5, but rounding down.

bored

бля ну скукота какая то несусветная

I wish I was a bird so I could fly away from this

Not for me

This was just too awful to get through half a song and not worth making Spotify think this the kind of dredge I want shuffled to me.

I'm committed to listening to every album on here at least twice, but this one is a test from the lord himself. Melodramatic, humorless, uncreative. I cannot fathom how this album can be on any best-albums list that isn't merely the personal fascinations of the most boring creative arts graduate you know. It's a slap in the face to every great dreary album that has taken seriously its obligation to not be boring in its pursuit of capturing crushing sadness, and I take this 1001 Albums list less seriously having listened to this.

this is so languid and dour in tone that it was hard to get through. i had trouble with the excessive vocal vibrato, and none of the music really moved me or captured my attention. this kind of over-polished vocal driven piano music always kinda feels to me like it was manufactured in a lab to make me feel things, and i always end up rejecting it. so maybe it's good, but i hate this kind of thing.

i hate this kind of singing. i’m sorry but i couldn’t get passed the first two tracks.

Dreary...yikes

This album is as dumb as the singer's fake female alto. It's like an overlong experimental art piece that forgot to include the "music" part. The songs dragged, the pacing was all over the place, and the whole thing felt like it was trying way too hard to be profound. The lone bright spots? “What Can I Do?” and “Spiralling” — and let’s be honest, that’s entirely thanks to Rufus Wainwright and Devendra Banhart showing up to briefly salvage the mess.

2 Takte gehört - Stop! Bis hierher und nicht weiter! Letzte Platte! Hier kommt nichts mehr! Bye, bye!

So fucking bad

Didn't care for dude's voice and the pace of the songs.

Not my bag.

Co, to, kurwa, było.

I have tried to listen to this album a few times, but never got through it. Finally did this time, and it was pretty much as I remember. Not my style at all. 1.5/5

not opera, but too close for me

weird avant guarde music song by a warbling dude. This is really bad

no :(

it's exactly the amount of pathos and soul i can't stand

Kind of pretentious and hard to listen to. The vibrato quickly becomes a bit much.

Just no. Sub pedestrian piano and warbling.

Absolutely cannot stand Antony’s voice, it’s so grating and annoying that it ruins the entire album. Frustratingly, some of the songs are quite pretty when you try and isolate the music from the voice. Unfortunately this is not enough to save it, I hate this overall.

Sian : I disliked this album when I first heard it and continue to do so Deb : "please turn it off and put something else on now"

In the 65 albums Ive rated so far, I can only consider one or two of them as memorable. Vast numbers of derivative tracks, little originality, loads of pretension. There must be some iconic albums somewhere on the list, surely? But this is not one of them.

Dislike strongly 1/5

Kan man låta gnälligare? Förlåt men jag har gränser och det här var gränsen. Detta var inte bra.

Nope. I forced myself to listen more than the 1st song but couldn't finish the 2nd song either.

1/5

This is #day100 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge and... (yikes!) those vocals... I was going to give this a 2 out of 5 solely because of the artwork, which I liked, but I changed my mind when the album was finally over. It should never have made it to the list. Looking forward to #day101.

There’s really not much going on with the instrumentals here - one song almost tricked me in to thinking it could be soul, so this album kind of lives or dies on how I feel about the vocals… Which I fucking hate. ⭐️

i don't think i get it

This ain't it, chief. Fat tiny Tim. 1.5/5

Sounds like Sam Smith and James Blake’s love child freestyling over orchestra practice. Best song: Fistful of Love

Weird and creepy. The dude wants to be a little girl. Tiny Tim fluttering vocals is horrendous. Just gross all around. Glad it was short.

This was....trash. I don't know who told this person they could sing but they need a few more lessons. Warbling all over the place doesn't make you a singer.

bailed halfway when the vibrato knocked my headphones off

This is one of the worst album to which I have listened. Terrible music, unappealing voice, trite lyrics that want so badly to be edgy. This will not replace Harry Parch are the album to play at the end of the night to get people to leave.

I lasted about 27 seconds.

Interesting, but no.

Not for me.

Bailed after 30 seconds. Can't get beyond that bloody voice.

This is the kind of crap someone who thinks they're smarter than they are insists you have to listen to because its so meaningful, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan

Tried to listen to this all the way through four times now. It's just so boooooooring. Not for me

No. I don't want to be harsh, but it felt like a parody of vibrato after a while. I just couldn't. I had to distract myself with work to finish the album.

At first I hated this. It started to get bearable in the middle, then quickly back downhill again at the end.

1/6

The bird is not going to make it.

In some alternate universe this album is a masterpiece. Fortunately we are not in that universe.

yeck

In which an entire album is based around the voice of the singer, and the singer sounds like a dog toy on its last legs

Couldn't handle the vocal style.

What are we doing

ISTG this guys vocals are flat. (and i supposedly have perfect pitch, or at least thats what my music tchr + peers say) the vibrato is way too shaky and he sounds like hes trying WAY too hard to be emotional... Then at some points he sounds like hes trying to be elvis, except enunciating none of them clearly. Not good.

I was most looking forward to this album being over

I’m sorry but within the first second I accepted that I would dislike this album. The vocals immediately dragged and made me angry to a point where I didn’t know if I could move on even with the next song. It was slow and painful to listen to.

They sound like I did as a little kid when I'd "sing" through a giant rotating box fan. I just can't with their voice, I really can't. It's almost a shame that the music is so lovely and admittedly this is all unique ... ehh I acknowledge it's totally subjective but Anohni's voice detracts and distracts from the music so completely that it's almost disturbing. 3/10 1 star

Ooh, that voice is grating AF and bordering on creepy. I want this bird to fly away and not ever enter my airwaves again. .5/5

If only this bird would fly away. But no. Instead it decided to take up residence in the throat of the singer fluttering away like a caged vibrato hummingbird. This has got to be one of the 1001 you must hear if only to serve as a reminder to never listen to it again. Annoying from the first downbeat. Who knows if the piano driven arrangements were any good since I never got past the grating voice. And to think this album received high rankings from supposedly well respected rags like Pitchfork. Nope.

This is the type of album that makes me think…maybe 1001 was too many? I’m down with unique voices and it’s good that everyone doesn’t sound the same, but I this just didn’t work for me. I had to check Spotify to see if my settings were off.

Terrible

So this is what it would sound like if Adele sang with a mouth full of peanut butter while driving on a bumpy road.

This is absolutely awful. Really this one of the albums I should listen to before I die. Not sure who picked this list but this does not belong in this list

Stopped listening. Too boring

The fuck is this shit. What makes this "an album I must hear before I die?" This is just some sad, confused person's diary. There is nothing even remotely interesting about this to me.

This person sings like they're in the middle of a yawn.

just terrible, no idea how this made it anywhere near this list. One of the few that wish there was a zero star option

I have nothing nice to say.

Nah

Thankfully, this album was short. That is the only good thing about it. The person cannot sing. It sounded like dying cats. The lyrics were eh. The music itself was not great. It is not the worst album on the list, but I definitely did not need to hear it. I will round down.

No disponible en Costa Rica

I don’t know why anyone would find this pleasurable. A long tuneless moan

So weird. Man/Woman/They/Them.... not really sure. At one point I thought I was listening to Tiny Tim... not for me

Dog shit

Not my thing.

There is clearly musical merit here, but it’s just not at all my bag, and way too many ballads. I really dislike the singer’s voice and can’t get past that, but I can appreciate that lots of people would like it. But I think our ratings are meant to reflect our enjoyment, not really an unbiased musical assessment. So, this will get a 1 from me, unfortunately. One highlight is the middle string section on Man Is The Baby. I also didn’t mind the Rufus Wainright song too much, but he’s also not my bag. But way more enjoyable to me than the regular singer.

Complete garbage.

Wat heb jij een uniek, maar vervelend stem geluid

Man I guess I really do hate ballads. There were some interesting instrumental bits but nah.

nope-not a fan of the vocals, the vibrato, the lyrics, or most of the instruments. at all. this was a hard one to finish & can't say I'm happy I did

Was qualifiziert dieses Album zu denen zu gehören, die man während seines Lebens gehört haben sollte? Joke, oder?

Depressing not fun Vibrato on voice was driving me insane. Vlice was not freat for me

strange intonations from the vocalists with little traditional song structure and complex melodic variations that make this an interesting listen, albeit one that is uniquely suited for when you are really sad.

Sounds like a drag queen singing contemporary Christian music. Don’t get me wrong, I watch RuPaul every Friday. Good singers are the exception. Contemporary Christian speaks for itself.

Didn't care for this at all.

Definitely not for me.

God that voice got annoying

That vibrato tho.

Never heard of this person. Not my jam.

unlistenable

Dreary fucking dreary. Musically fine, conceptually fucking miserable. Go listed to Rio by Duran Duran instead, that's a good album

Could have been so much more. Not for me

God this voice is annoying. No thanks.

boring

I couldn’t listen to the guys voice. So didn’t get too far it the album.

This is trash. Why anyone thinks this is groundbreaking or interesting is totally beyond me. Can I give it zero stars?

Vocalmente no me convenció, exceso de vibrato y melodías muy melosas. Musicalmente es un album que está bien, pop melódico con tintes del gospel y del jazz, aunque no muy profundizados. Un álbum muy triste.

Na nan nan fuck off j’me tape pas 35 minutes de ressort de portes qui zouingne dans l’vide. Jvais lui faire manger son multi layers de vibrato pour que ses pets sonnent plus mélodiques que lui

I did not like this at all. Melancholy and dreary to start, did not enjoy the singers voice. 1 star

First track - what is this obnoxious guff? Second track - oh crap, this is basically Rufus Wainwright but with falsetto warbling instead of nasal whining. Let's check the sleeve notes. Oh joy, Rufus Wainwright's a guest performer. Third track - ah. This is a concept album about transsexuality. Great. Good for you, pet. Can you stop singing now please? Track four - no, you're gonna carry on, aren't you? The rest of this album is a hard no from me. I don't need this kind of tosh in my life. The mid-2000s continue to suck giant donkey balls. Jesus, looking back, the global financial crisis came as an actual relief. Actually... Fistful of Love has just come round and is stepping far enough from morose cry-wanking to be actually quite nice, however it leads directly into Spiralling, which ratchets up the self-indulgence and presents what could and should be a nice voice. With a couple of show pony displays, the track and the voice are utterly ruined by the vibrato. The production is pretty good, if only if it didn't sound like it was sung from atop a washing machine at the busiest part of the spin cycle.

The vocalist recorded this album while sitting atop a running washing machine. Whatever singing style this is bothers me. The piano was fantastic along with the ambient music. But that vocal vibration noise is atrocious. Almost like they are being electrocuted. Based on my listening history I tend to like melancholic music. But not this. That singing killed it. “What Can I Do?” Was fine because I think the Johnsons took over for that one. Aaaand spooky ghost 👻 voice is back…. 2/10

An absolute chore of an album. I'm not a singer nor professional but I feel like you shouldn't be in vibrato 99% of the time you sing. So incredibly distracting. 2/10.

Every track is more and more wailing over a piano with occasional sparse accompaniment. Boring at best, unpleasant at worst. Did not finish.

Was not a fan of the vocals. A little two oversang and the vibrato honestly bugged me. I was getting tiptoe through the tulips vibes. Lol

Like waiting for a bus in the rain

Tiny Tim?

I thought one song was good. The rest … nope. The vibrato on the voice was annoying. The songs were weird. Not my jam.

This album almost physically hurt to listen to. The fact that it has earned 5 star reviews here and “perfect scores” from critics just boggles my mind. I suppose that is why “art and music” is considered so subjective.

Poignant lyrics, but just not doing it for me

Just didn’t connect with this. Never a moment I said wow or even okay

I'm going to assume that this album is viewed as hugely, culturally important in art and the LGBTQ+ movement. I'm not going to confirm that assumption though because I honestly couldn't care less. Her voice sounds abysmal for most of this album. Traditionally bad singing voices are not a disqualifier for me obviously, but they are a mutually exclusive concept with any kind of chamber music. I'm glad Anohni was able to find the peace she very clearly longs for in this album, but the album itself is bad. Real bad. Very, very difficult listen.

No a fan of this guys voice at all

Not my taste

Didn’t listen to this because of the review s

Not for me. I don't really like Antony's voice and the music isn't my style. I felt the same way when this came out and was making all the critics lists.

AWFUL! This is the type of music to commit suicide to. Run a warm bath, light a candle, get a razor blade out, put this on and let go.

This album suuucked!

No this isn’t very good 1/5

I liked What Can I Do?, it sounded like Radiohead. That’s about it tho. The music was nice I just think the vocals weren’t it.

I Am a Bird Now... Please go fly away then.

Not for me. The singer has a unique voice and i never got used to it.

No. Just no. That warbling voice is so annoying that I couldn’t get past it to try to listen to the lyrics and see if they’re interesting or not.

I honestly tried

Not for me!

The music sounded quite nice, but good grief, the vocals were awful. Warbling and affected, like someone doing deliberately bad singing for a comedy recording, it killed the entire album for me. Even the presence of Lou Reed wasn't enough to save this from the weird warbling noises that just vibrated up and down constantly, ruining everything. I always like to complete albums, even stinkers like this one, but it took me multiple sittings to endure the awful caterwauling noise coming out of the singer. Sorry, but this really isn't for me, just plain torture from start to finish. Like someone gargling their own snot, not a single phrase made without some vibrato added where it totally wasn't required.

Appalling

Not sure how this made it into the 1001. 👎

Did not enjoy

singer super distracting, to the point I can't even listen. Wanted to give a higher score as obviously emotional personal music, however rating on how much I enjoy listening and that's not at all

Nope

Would need to be in a very particular mood to listen to this again. Very melancholic "baroque pop." Singer tells tale of journey relating to gender?

Dude sounded like a dying cat.

Luke a male Adele, but I don't like Adele.

Miserable. Annoying voice. Just listen to Scott walker. Sot What can I do 1/5

Not my style of music.

Didn't like it. Didn't like it at all.

Awful

No thank you

This guy seems to be obsessed with generic pop. More of the same

I could never listen to this again. Really not digging the vibrato, especially in bird girl

I feel like I’m listening to a ghost sing. I think there are good lyrics in there but I can’t parse them out because of the delivery.

no.

I am not a fan of this one. His voice reminds me of Morrissey but worse. I could not stand the yodel-esque vocal vibrato that was used on this record. The production is boring and very few parts actually stick out. The whole record really blends together in a way that makes it hard to remember if it's the same song or a new song. The whole record comes off as pretentious due to his voice in my opinion. Favorite Track: None Least Favorite Track: Bird Guhl

Tråkigt indie-skit

Wasn't into this at all.

Not for me - like nails scratching on a blackboard.

Oh nein, nicht meins - ich mag dieses künstliche Singen nicht

Couldnt get into it