I Am a Bird Now

First impressions: modern Tiny Tim. Layered vocals are very powerful. I'm not really sure how to rate this yet. I can recognize the genius, but I don't know if I like it yet.

Was not into the vocals at all. Weird vibrato

Really glad to hear this - I had listened to some Anohni in the past and loved it, but forgot about it. Now have listened to everything from both

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

The songs and arrangements are sad and beautiful. Her voice is cool -so much vibrato ( but too much for me after a while). I really liked hearing Rufus Wainwright sing a song in the middle of the album. Tough one to rate - I feel like I would’ve been into it more if I heard it in 2005. It definitely gave me a nostalgic feeling - I listened to a lot of sad music in 2005 haha. Another tough one to rate 2.5.

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.

I don't think I ever truly enjoyed the (main) vocals 100% but I sure as hell could appreciate it. It's quite emotive, and while the vibrato is a bit quicker than I usually prefer, it worked for the music. And the music? Beautiful. It's a very tough call to make because the vocals were still my least favorite part of it all, but I have to give this a 5 because of all the parts coming together perfectly.

no.

beautiful but not for me

I think I only knew Hope There's Someone before which is a real stunner!! But 100% untapped love for me in the rest of the album. My GOD the feeling and raw almost diary entry poetry on this album. It made me cry. I'm so so glad this album was written and put together by Anohni because it's a true gift to the world. The vocals and the ochestral sounding expansive instrumentation on tracks like Spiralling... wow. Every piece/part/instrument/vocal adds so much to every track too. A genius piece of work. PS I love the marmite vocals, they portray so much authentic feeling and they're certainly not overdone in my opinion. There are some parts where the vocal is completely pure and straight forward and that contrast is delish. Wonderful stuff! What a journey.

This reminds me very much of being 20, at uni in Brighton with Callum and listening to Antony and the Jonhsons and loving how different it was, and how the style is almost a bit unsettling but beautiful. Antony is now Anonhi and I think in this album wonderfully sung about gender identity, not something you come across that often. I massively recommend watching the live versions of some of these songs, spine tingles

I didn't know this at all before. It did take a while to warm on me but I really liked it. Fistful of Love was EXCELLENT. A great find.

Powerful but I didn't really like it.

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

Ekki endilega plata sem ég myndi hlusta á á hverjum degi eða oft í röð, en margt mjög fallegt og vel gert hér.

One's enjoyment of this i think will live or die based on what they think of the vocals. Musically i really enjoyed what was going on here but that vibrato reaches levels of comical where i had to stop listening cause i couldn't take it seriously. Most notably on the tracks where they layer the vocals so you have double the vibrato making an almost white noise of incomprehensible warbling. That said, the tracks where the vibrato is toned down and especially the ones with guest vocalists are exceptionally pretty and are the only reason i am giving this a 2 instead of a 1.

Not a fan. Dreary and boring.

Haunting, somber, achingly beautiful, and powerful.

Why is she singing like that? Is she being electrocuted? For the love of god, people, stop recording her and GO HELP HER.

Brutal

The way he can manipulate the octaves of his voice are insane. Beautiful album. Want to like sit by a river and listen to it in headphones.

Pretty weird, but I like it. Any band that is “unknown” but can still get Lou Reed and Boy George to guest star is pretty cool in my book!

J'ai pas écouté, j'étais pas trop dans le mood de ce genre de sons. En sah ça avait l'air cool hein, je mets 3 et je repasserais peut etre dessus lol

Incredible record!! Loved it. The voice and emotions are so powerful! I am not so found of the guest voices as the main voice is so freaking nice. 4.5/5

Verry cool stuff, kinda my style of music so I'm gonna inflate the rating on this one. 3 or 4 stars - probably a 3.5

Kind of weird voice, slow piano music, almost old timey sounding. Would have to give it more listens

reminded of Roy Orbison or Elvis. Overall, a pleasant surprise.

Didn't love it 3 Not that great for my workout tbh Ended up just sobbing for 35 minutes straight Wait. Is that Rufus Wainwright? It is

What exactly am I listening to? Couldn't tell if it is a dude or a woman...either way, there are times when I really don't like the voice... other times it is fine... for me, it is a nice album, but if I never heard it again, I think I'd be ok.... 2.5/5

I really can't stand this person's voice. The songs are pretty and tender, but the voice ruins it for me.

Wow! First album in here, that I didn't know at all, and then got transfixed by! I am (almost) speechless. This album is labelled as baroque/art pop. Well, if this genre is supposed to sound like this, then sign me in! Songs on this album have two layers. The first one, is a usually slow and rather melancholic, but beautiful melody, played on piano with plenty of string instruments. The second one is an incredibly rare and forceful voive of singer, Anhoni. And the song that shows that combinations better than anything else, is 'Hope there's someone'. If the only goal of listening to 1001 albums would be to hear this song for the first time, it is well worth it. Whole album is a very beautiful journey, that has been plaing in the background for the last day, and will be played for a long time since. Bravo!

What a voice!

While I don't really care for the heavy vibrato style singing, I can definitely appreciate the heart and feeling that pours from this album. It definitely feels like poetry put to music.

1001 vibratos to listen to before you die. The vibrato was so distracting I didn't get much else out of this album. The background music was nice but overpowered by VIBRATOOOOOOOOO.

This album is quite beautiful. It also has way too much vibrato which is something I think used sparingly is stunning but constantly is overdoing it. Pretty poetic lyrics with really good instrumentals. 4 is too high but 3 seems too low. 3.5 stars.

Listening to this was almost as bad as nails on a chalkboard.

Not for me

Haunting

Tråkigt indie-skit

About as depressing (melancholical) as the cover would suggest. I was about to turn it off after the first track, but it got a bit better. I didn't really like the effect of a "skipping CD" on the second track and lightly on others. Overall personally didn't enjoy it all that much unfortunately.

Admittedly I have always found Anohni's voice kind of grating, so I'd never listened to a full album before. This was very haunting and in some (many?) places I found it beautiful, but I don't think I'll listen to it much again.

This honestly sucks, but I'm giving it 2 stars because I guess it's meaningful to some people?

The kind of self indulgent warbling that apparently qualifies as music. I initially thought his voice was interesting but by the third track it just grated on me. And the songwriting is really dull. Boring and annoying is not a good combination. At 35 minutes it was 25 minutes too long.

Seriously I don't even understand what this list is anymore, if I did in the first place. Why is this album there, what is it about this that I need to listen to. In terms of music, we'll if you like a bloke gargling white spirit whilst singing about his flip flops being made from paste this is for you. One piano note rolls out every 4 bars to be dramatic, I guess. This album is like being made to cut the lawn with a pair of blunt scissors whilst birds peck at you and the cat can't even be bothered to piss on you, she has such contempt in her eyes.

Started off intriguing and different but quickly collapsed into irritating self-indulgent nonsense

I found the singers voice really offputting: so breathy, husky and with vibrato on everything. I ended up just listening to how much I disliked it, rather than to music. This was most apparent, when there was a lovely Rufus Wainwright sounding track in the middle all of a sudden.

I couldn't help but read the album title in a Scouse accent. Yeh, is right la! I quite enjoyed this album. I appreciate that Anohni's vocals can be an acquired taste, still I find them hauntingly beautiful, somewhat anguished and honest.

interessant

3.7 - I know it's cliché but the best word I can think of to describe this album is brave. Anohni "goes there" with lines like: "My My lady story is one of breast amputation." I like the voice and the delicate arrangements. And I heard the influence of this band on contemporaries like Perfume Genius.

What’s thrilling about this album is the joy that comes from an artist expressing their full self. Sad moments, more joyful moments, a tough listen in some respects but deserving of its place on this list.

Una veu, una manera de cantar i unes composicions tremendament personals. D'una cruesa i una sensibilitat gairebé extremes. Temes com 'Today I'm a Boy', 'You Are My Sister' o 'Hope There's Someone' són d'una preciositat que fa posar els péls de punta. Va ser la seva cúspide artística i un dels discos a reivindicar dels 00's

Iskreno mi se ni ovo nije slušalo, ne znam šta mi je u posljednje vrijeme. Međutim, natjerao sam se i mogu reći da ima dosta dobrih stvari na albumu, lijepih trenutaka, instrumentala obojano posebnim vokalom sa dobrim konceptom osobe koja želi izać iz muškog tijela.

mooi, traantjes

Wow. oke zwaar onderwerp en prachtige muziek. Ik ben fan

moody and dark

erm. not sure

Almost unspeakingly beautiful and haunting.

Another one that's all new to me, and it's great. Richly layered, interesting compositions, and superbly performed and recorded. I read the Wikipedia entry and learned there were quite a few guest stars in here -- artists I've long loved and admired -- and that's super-cool, too, but the work here really does stand strong on its own. Nicely done.

dramatic asf

Not sure why this didn’t come across my radar before.

Открывающий трек, You Are My Sister, What Can I Do? и Fistful of Love - однозначно шедевры. Близко к тому, что хочется слышать в идеальном альбоме из палаты мер и весов этого жанра. 8 из 10.

Nope

Love her voice. I've been a fan for a long time and this aughts-era indie will always have a soft spot in my heart.

This album grew on me slowly as I listened to it. I hated the first song but by the time it got to fistful of love I was into it partly cuz that song itself is a banger. This is another album like sault where the Spotify radio is better than the album

I was NOT expecting this. This music felt so personal, like reading someone's diary. They have a unique viewpoint of a trans life. His voice and style remind me of a mix between Nina Simone and Devendra Banhart. The instrumentals felt expansive and had a live-sounding quality. Beautiful. Unique.

Great rainy day album. Beautiful singing voice - reminds me a lot of benjamin copeland

Amazing voice and powerful lyrics speaking to issues and perspectives that aren't common in popular music.

There's some pearls of real beauty here. Highlights: What Can I Do?, For Today I am a Boy.

Tolles Vibrato, aber dafür hätte es diese Platte nicht gebraucht, oder? Musikalisch größtenteils uninteressant.

Forgot how much I liked this album!

Didn't like this at the time when it won the Mercury (I was team Bloc Party!) but on reflection, it's aged a lot better than the indie landfill of that era. This type of arty, baroque pop isn't really my thing but it was decent enough.

Can't do the vocals.

Another album no longer on the list. I'm mostly familiar with Antony/Anohni from her guest vocals on Lou Reed's The Raven and her later solo album, I'm not super familiar with the Johnsons. It's not really my thing, but it is pretty.

Lovely tunes, I think his singing and voice work well.

I wasn't convinced I was going to like this after the first track, it sounded a bit unfinished, like a demo or something. But as I got into it I realised that this just works, and ended up enjoying it a lot.

This is something new, hard to describe it or put it in a genre. In some way I liked it, his voice has something strange that I want to keep listening to. Not something to listen to all the time. Favourite songs: - Hope there’s someone - Fistful of love

Really enjoyed this, not listened to their work before and it was a good starting point.

Not really my thing but there's a beauty to this. 3

It seems the artist tried to make some ~deep~ songs, but they turned out really boring.

Nice. I'd like to hear this one again. 2/5

Pas un fan du vibrato dès le départ, la première toune j'étais sur le bord d'haïr ça (en plus Rufus se pointe plus tard😄) mais la deuxième toune et les suivantes était mieux. La production et les arrangements sont assez hot en fait. Avec un matériel assez simple somme toute, l'habillage rends tout de même le tout intéressant, certains beats surprenants au drum . Clairement pas un disque que j'écouterais souvent mais c'est artistiquement de haut niveau, je tripe pas chanson à texte et mettons que le propos est assez front mais la personne au centre de ce projet sait comment s'entourer.

C’est différent et pareil en même temps. La façon de chanter est particulière, tout comme la façon d’organiser les tounes. Par contre, c’est encore du foutu I-V-VI-IV qu’on essaie même pas de cacher. Aussi, la façon de chanter semble être un truc pour masquer une mélodie inexistente (Bird Ghul). On dirait qu’il/elle ne sait pas quelle note viser, alors il/elle fait un truc flou qui tourne autour. Finalement, you are my sister... Quessé ça ??? Au final, je suis content que ça existe et de l’avoir écouté. Je l’aime mieux comme artiste invité comme sur la toune de Bjork mettons.

C'est beau. Pièce préférée: Fistful Of Love

This is like a selection of songs from a musical that nobody can quite remember the story of.

Beautiful chamber pop I've not heard before. Stuff like it, stuff which strikes closer to my core immediately, sure. But nothing which created such a disjoint response to the first track and the rest. Far, far too subtle to evaluate without really sitting with it. Perhaps 2005 was a wild time for this to release.

Depressing album, but in a good way, we need albums with real emotion. Great vocals, especially the vibrato, the difference between the upper and lower register singing sounded like two different singers. Really interesting.

An album that is like a wallflower. Unspectacular, just kind of flows along like a river but in essence isn't bad. Just unremarkable both in positive and negative ways

I've heard some music from Antony and the Johnsons, but never a full album. "Fistful of Love" was my favorite track from the album, but I couldn't handle the warble in the vocals. The music is good, but the vocals would make me skip listening to this album again. I think the warble was enough to keep me from rounding up to a full 3 stars.

Super interesting. Not my normal cup of tea, but I dug the music a lot. The vocals weren't my favorite style, but the guest vocalists were good. 3.5/5, but rounding down to a 3. With a different lead singer, may be a 4 for me. This is just my personal preference. Very poignant cover art, too, given the backstory of who it is.

Haunting, beautiful, but despite that I had some trouble getting into it. Could see it growing on me. Or not.

Vibrato vox very much not my thing. First track is undeniably powerful but I can't take a whole album of it. Emotionally exhausting.

I remember in my 20s hearing the first track on Pandora radio and was pretty struck by it, so I went and tried to listen to the album... and more of it I heard the more I started to dislike it. The heavy vibrato-vocals I think work well to be used sparingly, or just one track. But, as it goes on it gets to be too much for me. Might be a nice concert to go to and never listen to again, just for that transient experience.

Good stuff. Lush, acoustic instruments; unusual vibrato vocals and well written songs.

What a wild ride. Crazy voice! She's got some killer vibrato. Worth a listen.

Great when I’m in the mood for it

3 Stars

I liked this, for all its over the top operatic presentation, it had a unique sound and the lyrics mostly managed to be dramatic without falling over into mawkish melodrama.

Surely not an easy listen, but a must checking out.

Wasn't into this at all.

Not for me - like nails scratching on a blackboard.

lush - dreamy, yearning, songs of transition

This wasn’t what I expected, especially right off of the bat. The music and vocals were not anticipated, but in a good way. The R&B kind of feel have this a good vibe, which I liked, I just found it difficult to get fully “into” this album. I liked it, but not in a way that will make me seek out other music by this artist.

Great Misconduct At Home, Just Wrote Saf7a Bark Men 3l Bouheli Mte3 Dostoevsky 3al Album He4a

Was not expecting the voice… strange, unique, and hauntingly beautiful.

Antony's vibrato is probably the worst part of this experience. A very beautiful album, but the vocal styling is what ruins it for me.

Beautiful pain.

Strange and unique

Sometimes hard to listen to the vocals, but there is some beautiful music here.

No longer in the latest editions of the book.

Such a beautifully haunting album.

Han har en härlig röst Antony men ett ganska tråkigt album

I don't get it ... Yet, this won the Mercury Prize for best UK album of 2005? OK. Giving it a 2 b/c I don't want to seem completely ignorant.

First couple of tracks were solid. Kind of a Fiona Apple meets Tiny Tim vibe. 2.3.

Haunting and beautiful. Definitely from the heart, both the lyrics and the performance. The constant vibrato in the voice sometimes becomes too much. Not a regular re-listen but poses questions that linger and therefore worthy of merit.

Vraiment beau j'adore la voix du gars

Je m'attendais pas à cette voix, impressionné (4/5 mais 5/5 pour la cover et Lou Reed) Prefs: Hope There's Someone, You Are My Sister, FISTFUL OF LOVE, Spiralling Moins pref: Free At Last

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

If this guy was in the piano lounge I would definitely wait until the set was finished

Unusual vocals, unique and haunting. As a whole, I felt this got better as I worked through the album, not gripped at the start, but really enjoyed it by the end. Musically varied, but all linked by Anohni‘s gifted voice

Alku kuulosti lupaavalle, mutta siihen sitten se jäikin. Saattais sopia hetkeen kun ympäripäissään rikkoo viimeisen olutpullon kävelymatkalla rannalta kotiin...

Nyt vasta tajusin ku en eilen illalla saanu unta, et ois pitäny tää laittaa soimaan. Aikas mitäänsanomaton, mut ei megaskeidaa kuitenkaan

It has some interesting moments here and there. The last minute of Hope There's Someone and the cameos from Lou Reed and Boy George for instance. Despite the songs being pretty straight forward with little variation musically, it has beautiful piano and strings throughout. It's also has some meaningful lyrics regarding ANHONI's life and transition, plus longing for someone. I can truely understand why this is on the list and how it has touched many hearts, but I just cannot stand the vocals and that alone was too distracting to enjoy this. Mad respect for her creating meaningful art that has touched many, but it's simply not my cup of tea.

Couldnt get into it

would give it a 0

For the record, nothing about this looked appealing to me ahead of time. Couldn’t have been more surprised to hear the beauty woven throughout the album. Anohni’s hauntingly powerful vibrato vocals shine as the music seems to dynamically flow from her singing. Loved nearly every song and noticed how the compositional style remains simple and elegant yet has surprising and unexpected turns whenever you think you have it figured out. Lou Reed sits in as a bonus.

keep flying dude

Had high expectations when this album was released, but usually only listen to the three or four stand-out tracks - rest of the songs = three star. I would say 4* is the appropriate rating.

16 years later and this album still leaves me speechless. I have no speech. I am without speech.

Boring

he's got such an annoying voice. i didn't get it the first time round and i still don't get it now. nice music but gets ruined by him warbling over the top.

I don't think you're supposed to call him Antony anymore. Who knew that 'I am a bird now' would take on such significance?

I loved this album when it came out but listening back to it now, I am struggling to remember why. The voice is beautiful but the music seems to be there solely to showcase the voice, there's not a lot going on. The later ANOHNI stuff is infinitely more interesting.

Like if tiny Tim went through puberty

liveblogging this one... track 1 - oh god, THAT's why i know this name. i can't stand this guy's voice...and i've got another 32 minutes left. at least it's a short album track 2 - oh god track 3 - oh god track 4 - oh god track 5 - is it over yet? track 6 - is that rufus wainwright? (as it happens, yes) track 7 - lou fucking reed?? track 8 - oh god, there are two of them now? (in fairness, i do kinda like devendra banhart, but...i mean, come on...) track 9 - oh god track 10 - this is different, at least aaaanndd...that's a wrap. the best thing about this album was its length. for me, the worst thing was probably everything else. i know he'll have his fans, but i am clearly not one of them, and as much as i try to keep an open mind about this kinda thing...i just can't get past the fact that i hate his voice with a passion that lives and breathes, and will undoubtedly outlive me. sorry, anthony.

So emotional & melancholy. I like the genre description Baroque Pop.