To his credit, listening to Antony Hegarty’s music has always taken the listener off the beaten track. His bizarre wobbly croon and the at times breathtaking fragility of much of his music is quite different from anything else. This meandering album veers between the compelling and the extraneous. The title track ‘Swanlights’ heads towards irrelevant bonus track territory despite being the fulcrum of the record, but ‘Fletta’ with Bjork guesting and ‘Ghost’ are excellent, and opener ‘Everything Is New’ is a beguiling and intriguing introduction to proceedings. Often beautiful, undoubtedly original but not always quite on the money.
[etRating value=“ 3.5”]
