Cripple and The Starfish - Reviews

Reviews

One of Antony Hegarty's first and better-known songs, Cripple and the Starfish is often lauded by music critics and fellow musicians. Lou Reed, whose collaborations with Antony and the Johnsons helped booster the group's success, said of Hegarty, "When I first heard 'Cripple and the Starfish'‚ I knew I was in the presence of an angel."

In describing a 2000 New York Public Theater performance of Antony and the Johnsons at Joe's Pub, a reviewer for Brainwashed discussed the single of this song stating that "since nothing is quite as fascinating as horror, I found myself returning repeatedly to "Cripple and the Starfish", and to my utter surprise discovered that I was hooked." That same year a reviewer for The Wire praised the song's emotional impact by saying that it sounds "as baffling and as upsetting in its fuller CD context" as it did as a single.

In 2001, The Village Voice mentioned this song as one which aptly demonstrates Hegarty's "Disarmingly childlike" stage presence which "twines innocence to decidedly polymorphous perversity." A 2003 review in PAPER Magazine named Cripple and the Starfish as among Hegarty's "gorgeous, crystal-pure tunes" that possesses "a silvery, sweetly masochistic intensity." In reviewing a 2004 appearance of the group at O2 Academy Islington, a reviewer for Mojo magazine said that Hegarty "trills heartbreakingly" when performing this song.

In a review of a 2007 concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music which paired Antony and the Johnsons with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, a reviewer for Rolling Stone magazine wrote that Hegarty's older material was awakened with fresh vigor by the orchestra led by Nico Muhly and "Already emotionally firm, songs like 'Cripple and the Starfish' brimmed with intensity under a simmering arrangement." In a review of a 2008 performance of Antony and the Johnson at the Apollo Theatre, a writer for UGO referred to "Cripple and the Starfish" as one of the band's "classics."