Antony is a mermaid. Hearing his voice, you become possessed, paralyzed by it's beauty and, unless you are tied to a mast, you are going to be subject to listen to whatever he feels like singing about in order to hear more. On this, his first album, he seems more intent on singing about easily shocking taboo subjects: masochism, the holocaust (with references to Hitler), transvestites. Actually, this last one is an integral part of the whole Antony & The Johnsons image. Maybe there's a deeper meaning to all of this, but on the surface it seems more bent on trying to test the listeners sensibilities while masking the whole thing behind incredibly soft and beautiful music. There's a fun ode to Divine, the transvestite who starred in early John Waters movies, famous for eating dog shit in front of a camera. William Basinski plays clarinet on the album. A good effort, but a much more mature work was to follow.