Hope There's Someone, the albums opening track, is so incredibly powerful, many people have mentioned how they became hypnotized by Antony's voice during those first four minutes. It sounds so fragile at first, but then gains intensity towards the song's conclusion. These fragile moments are the most interesting on the album, the equally wonderful Bird Gehrl and the sad Man Is The Baby make up the three highlights of the album. The other songs are somewhat more bombastic, at times leaning towards gospel and cabaret. There's also an array of guest artists joining Antony on a few songs to flash things up: Devendra Banhart, Lou Reed and Boy George just to name a few. This album is definitely a step up from the first album. It's suffocating theatricality has taken a back seat to more personal and mature work. One of my favorite albums of 2005. Lovely!