Some insanely good music

I've been listening to a pair of albums by Antony and the Johnsons ("an utterly genderqueer musical sensation"),
the album of the same name and
I Am A Bird Now. This is ridiculously good music, really quite indescribable (sort of gospel-y and lushly orchestrated, but imagine a weird combination of the Benjamin Britten-Peter Pears sound plus the Smiths of The Queen is Dead plus Tom Waits plus... well, I think you just have to listen to it). My new favorite song is "Cripple and the Starfish," which is equal to the Velvet Underground "Venus in Furs" as best masochistic love song of all time ("I am very very happy / so please hurt me").

As often with good things, this has come my way via Nico, whose own Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis don't seem to be available yet on his website but were broadcast (as performed by Girton and Clare College choirs, Cambridge) on the BBC Choral Evensong program in February. Really beautiful stuff--I was just listening to it again recently and marveling.

Another musical post to follow later in the week.