ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS - The Crying Light

Just as this fall's Another World single/EP seemed substantial enough to stand in for a full-length, so now does this proper new release seem much weightier than its 40-minute length, as in double-album heavy. Maybe it's all those swaying, ponderous cabaret stylings at work, but it feels like there's a lot to get through on The Crying Light, and not necessarily in a bad way--as the title implies, it just makes you all the more exhaustedly weighted down yet lifted up once you're done, and it should be noted that the more rock'n'soul-influenced songs here, "Kiss My Name" and "Aeon", kick away that piano bench and uplift at just the right moments in the track listing.