Antony and the Johnsons’ followup to 2005′s excellent, Mercury Prize-winning I Am A Bird Now, the Another World EP, is out next month, a stopgap before the next proper full-length, The Crying Light, due in January. I Am A Bird definitely feels like a modern classic, so these five new songs (and the subsequent LP) have big shoes to fill: So far we’ve heard EP track “Shake That Devil,” which weds a more raucous southern R&B drum pattern and whiskey-soaked saxophone with Antony’s distinctive vocals. It’s a different sort of blues. As for his voice, Antony doesn’t push it as far as he has in past or recent memory — see, for instance, his post-I Am A Bird “The Dull Flame Of Desire” duet with Björk, Herculean disco, or angelic Lou Reed assistance. Instead, he never floats above the backdrop, sticking to the overall R&B feel of the song. It’s an interesting shift — sort of akin to Mick Barr toning down the epic finger-slashing solos and playing actual parts in his black metal band, Krallice. Except Antony’s is a different shade of black.

Here’s the EP tracklist:

01 “Another World”
02 “Crackagen”
03 “Shake That Devil”
04 “Sing For Me”
05 “Hope Mountain”

“Another World” is the official The Crying Light first single, so that might give us a better idea of what to expect on the full-length. This lovely Colin Whitaker-shot Another World EP teaser, which includes a snippet of said track, should help, too.

Another World EP is out 10/7 via Secretly Canadian. After that, he has some shows:

10/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall
10/16 – New York, NY @ Apollo Theatre
10/30 – London, UK @ The Barbican
10/31 – London, UK @ The Barbican

[Photo by Chico DeLuigi]