|
Review - My Brightest Diamond: A Thousand Shark’s Teeth |
A Thousand Shark’s TeethAsthmatic Kitty
My Brightest Diamond, the moniker for singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Shara Worden, first gained notoriety for being part of Sufjan Stevens’ backing band, the Illinoisemakers. She truly came into her own with 2006’s stunning debut Bring Me The Workhorse: at times a minimalist chamber-pop sleeper, and at other times a rock-tinged indie heartsong, the album pushed Worden out of Stevens’ shadow and into the limelight. Her sophomore effort, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, however, finds My Brightest Diamond taking a sharply more classical and atmospheric route, casting out the hooks and melodies that made her debut so charming.
Worden has been recording music under different names since her college days at the University of North Texas, but it wasn’t until she toured with Stevens that she got major recognition. Unbeknownst to most, both Bring Me the Workhorse and A Thousand Shark’s Teeth were recorded at roughly the same time, once the Illinoise tour was over. The latter album emphasizes Worden’s classical training with songs designed to be accompanied by a string quartet. The length of time between the release of the two records, it seems, suggests Worden’s unease with redefining herself to the extent that Shark’s Teeth does. The album centers on sweeping six-minute-plus epics that ebb and flow: overall, it sounds like a minimalist post-rock band might if they employed a cabaret singer to front their string experimentation.
It’s true that My Brightest Diamond still retains the title of one of the most captivating voices in modern music, with an entrancing mix of vaudeville, classic opera, and pop sensibility. Still, the rest of Shark’s Teeth seems to lack just this, the sense of a proper rock record. While the album is bigger and perhaps the instrumentals are cleaner, it lacks the edge that even a simple drum kit or guitar strum might provide. In a way, it seems My Brightest Diamond is taking herself a lot more seriously now, which might be a blessing to serious fans but is off-putting for fans of her earlier work.
-John Bradley
|
