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Antony Hegarty, frontman for Antony and the Johnsons, is known for his striking, otherworldly sound, and for complex chamber-pop music that explores issues of gender and sexual identity. But Hegarty?s latest album, The Crying Light, veers aways from those issues and focuses on his relationship to the environment and the earth, and on the issue of climate change.

In a recent interview with NPR, Hegarty said he's trying to find a way to better align himself with the world around him. "I think that's what everyone's grappling with," he told NPR.org. "Every taxi driver I talk to, I ask them all the time what's going on where you come from with the environment, and they all say it's gone to hell. It's all different. Half of them think apocalypse is about to come."

The new album displays Hegarty?s mature, intense and soulful songwriting that won him the prestigious Mercury Prize in 2005. But the song ?Another World,? which critics call the standout track of The Crying Light, is an especially heartbreaking ode of sorts to a dying earth. ?I?m gonna miss the sea, I?m gonna miss the snow, I?m gonna miss the bees, I?ll miss the things that grow, I?m gonna miss the trees, I?m gonna miss the sound, I?ll miss the animals, I?m gonna miss you all. I need another place, Will there be peace? I need another world, this one?s nearly gone.?

Antony and the Johnsons are currently on a 15-date U.S. tour. Visit www.antonyandthejohnsons.com for dates.

Photo credit: Alice O'Malley/antonyandthejohnsons.com