Sometimes the best albums really do come out of the blue. Antony Hegarty is a young, gender-bending cabaret queen who's taken the New York nightclub scene by storm, and whose talent for heart-rending torch songs has been perfectly realised on this superb debut. Lou Reed says that when he first heard the tremulous diva, he felt he was in the presence of an angel - and listening to these string-soaked postcards from the edge, you can see exactly what he meant. Reed, Boy George and Rufus Wainwright all contribute vocals here, although they're hardly needed since Antony's castrato vibrato is so affecting on its own. If his tortured, yearning lyrics are anything to go by, he's had a rough life up to now. The future should be a lot brighter.
