A California misfit who relocated to New York City to become the drag queen of her dreams, ANOHNI has a voice every bit as unusual as her life story. I Am a Bird Now is her second album, and it’s a great achievement of high weirdness that includes enough special guests to qualify as an episode of The Love Boat. Her androgyny manifests itself in every note, as her unusually flexible voice shifts from feminine to masculine with the ease and grace of a ballet dancer. Her hero Boy George duets for “You Are My Sister.” Lou Reed adds vocals and guitar to “Fistful of Love.” (ANOHNI has sung on Reed’s albums The Raven and Animal Serenade.) Rufus Wainwright and Devendra Banhart also join for a few tracks. ANOHNI is a master of paradox, setting the musical tones with ominous cocktail lounge pianos and funeral-home-styled stringed instruments alongside a whimsical lightness. Underneath the freakish posing and dark shadows is a simple girl who just wants to have fun.
