There are lots of wonderful greatest lists out there, but I absolutely love Out Magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums. Yeah, there are oodles of predictable choices here like Madonna (way too many of her albums on the list), David Bowie, Queen, Pet Shop Boys etc. But there are also some great surprises. Nick Drake and The Beatles make the cut. But then there is th inspired choice of Antony and the Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now, which comes in at #10.
Antony Hegarty has a high tembling voice which you either love or hate. Me, I love his voice and all the vulnerability he exposes. According to Out Magazine:
“With unflinching passion, a desperate desire for human connection, and a tremulous voice redolent of Nina Simone, cherubic Antony Hegarty — with help from Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, and Boy George — delivered a sparse set of some of the saddest, rawest songs ever recorded. In I Am a Bird Now’s 10 tracks, the singer meditates on the lonesome “middle place” between life and nothingness (“Hope There’s Someone”); gender mutability (“For Today I Am a Boy”); sadomasochism (“Fistful of Love”); and, on the album’s breathtaking climax, “Bird Gerhl,” the sublime freedom of flying alone.”