The Crying Light (2009)

In 2005, Antony and the Johnsons beat the likes of Coldplay and M.I.A. to win England’s esteemed Mercury Prize with I Am a Bird Now — an improbable amalgam of orchestral, almost funereally paced chamber pop and far-out themes (mortality, sibling rivalry, transgenderism). It's a testament to the otherworldly talents of singer Antony Hegarty, who sounds like Nina Simone with a small tree frog in her throat, that Bird's follow-up, The Crying Light — a haunting collection of ballads that play like transmissions from a mournful, elegant alien — nearly equals its predecessor. A–

Download This: Listen to the song ''Another World'' on the band's MySpace