Antony and the Johnsons have been covering Beyoncé‘s pop heavyweight “Crazy in Love” on the stage for some time now. The New York-based singer thankfully doesn’t inject any irony mugging into the proceedings, instead opting to cut to the very marrow of a quite depressing song. Without Beyoncé‘s glitz getting in his way, Hegarty lays out lines like “Such a funny thing for me to try to explain/How I’m feeling and my pride is the one to blame,” like desperate pleas for salvation.

On August 4th we’ll get to hear how close Antony and his haunting chamber players get to the song’s essence when the studio version of the cover is released. Secretly Canadian is handling distribution and “Crazy in Love” is the U.S. double A-side single, with the Crying Light single “Aeon” on the flip. A day earlier, Rough Trade will release the single in the U.K. and Europe. As far as formats go, the single will be out on CD and 7-inch vinyl in America, but accross-pond fans only get the 7-inch.

In other Antony-related news, he’s curated the new issue of Zoetrope magazine, Francis Ford Coppola’s literary quarterly. The magazine also features Antony’s artwork. Fans that pre-order the “Aeon”/“Crazy in Love” single also get a free copy of the magazine.

Antony and the Johnsons are also touring all of Europe, and playing shows with various European symphony orchestras.