

When Antony and the Johnsons second album, I Am a Bird Now, won the Mercury prize it propelled songs about transgender, physical abuse and longing into the top 20 and made an unlikely star of Antony Hegarty. Blessed with a voice that can reduce grown men to sobbing wrecks, Hegarty – as with friend and collaborator Björk – creates his own world, distilling avant-garde ideas into something strangely accessible. Swanlights, the band's fourth album, sees Hegarty finding inspiration from environmental issues. While tracks such as recent single Thank You for Your Love and I'm in Love reveal a lightness of touch, the six-minute title track and the closing Christina's Farm are moments of beauty.

Antony and the Johnsons will be guest editing the music site for the week commencing Monday 11 October