"I truly believe that unless we move into feminine systems of government, we don't have a chance", declares Antony Hegarty, on track 2 of the predictably gorgeous new live album Cut the World. "Future Feminism", the track in question, is a speech that Antony delivered at one of the concerts from which the album was compiled, a speech in which he also expounds on the cycles of the moon as they relate to menstruation, the notion of a paradise on earth as opposed to the one of the patriarchal "sky gods" (in the words of the late great Gore Vidal), and discusses his own "de-baptism" and religion of transgenderism. 

One of the more compelling artists the new millennium has produced, Antony has put feminism front and center in much of his work. This year's Meltdown Festival, curated by Antony and currently ongoing at London's Southbank Centre, features such iconic women as Diamanda Galas, Laurie Anderson, CocoRosie, Elisabeth Fraser and Marina Ambramovic, for whom Antony composed the  title track of this album, "Cut the World". 

Elsewhere, collaborating with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, playing arrangements by, among others, Rob Moose and Nico Muhly, the Antony and the Johnsons catalogue is sumptuous. "Another World" is unhurried, its melancholy and longing more pronounced than ever; in contrast, the ebullient "Kiss My Name", complete with stings and snare, is pure joy. "You Are My Sister" which Hegarty on which famously duetted in 2005 with Boy George (who also will appear at Meltdown) has a new majesty, and the confessional masochism of "Cripple and the Starfish"is, if possible, even more sublime than the original. 

It's frankly going to be hard to imagine Antony after this without the orchestral treatment.  These songs, it seems, have been waiting for this context to be finally, fully realised. Do you yourself the favor of hearing them in Antony and the Johnsons' new Cut the World.