Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Something of a Beginning, 20 Mar 2007
My Brightest Diamond is the work of opera trained singer and multi instrumentalist Shara Worden.
On her debut album, Bring me the Workhorse, the first thing that strikes is just how special her vocals are, the depth and range is stunning, so fluently a delicate ethereal note can become rich, deep and powerful. This may be more common in Wordens operatic background, but it is rare to hear such a great voice in the mainstream world of indie rock/pop.
Lyrically My Brightest Diamond sticks with her operatic roots, images such as a dead robin, old horse and dragonfly caught in a web all used to represent something much more. It is clear that Worden means every note, and whilst it may not be possible to correctly interpret these themes, it is always refreshing to hear something different yet meaningful.
The standout tracks seem to be the darkest, the painfully lonely Gone Away (I don't want to go on with pieces of paper to keep me company in my old age), the haunting Something of an End and chilling chimes of We Were Sparkling (I'm afraid to forget you) all feel very atmospheric and personal. Other highlights are the imposing beat of Workhorse, and the wonderful vocals of Golden Star.
I cannot help but feel that having such a diverse musical background (classical training, operatic studies, singing for Sufjan Stevens, appearing for underground hip hop act Jedi Mind Tricks) there could be so much more than drum machines and all too often simple guitar repetitions(the good and the bad guy, riding horses, disappear). But whilst it is not consistently brilliant, it is still an absolute gem of an album and should appeal to anyone interested in intelligent indie pop.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shara Worden's AwRY find a new lease of life under a new name, 9 Aug 2007
Althought she's been most recently heard as part of Sufjan Stevens' backing band, classically-trained singer Shara Worden was for a long time the frontwoman of New York art-rock band AwRY. Always interesting, they owed a huge debt to the music of Jeff Buckley and often played at tribute shows to the late singer/songwriter.
Shara's band has now morphed into My Brightest Diamond, and debut album Bring Me The Workhorse doesn't so much ape Jeff Buckley as take some of the essence of what he was - his airy lightness of touch, his wild musicality, his sense of freedom - and recreate it within a different idiom. This isn't rock or pop music, neither is it classical - and it's nothing whatsoever in common with those bland crossover albums made by classical musicians eager to make their artistry pay. Yes, it's string-laden, vocally innovative and lyrically dense - but the world it inhabits is entirely individual.
It will appeal to fans of artists like Kate Bush, P J Harvey, Scott Walker, Bjork and Tori Amos as much as it will to Buckley fans. The songs are meandering psychodramas, touched with gothic sensibilities but full of a poetic passion which supersedes any tribal sense of style.
And the lyrics are a rich world of their own, amplified by performances which are operatic in scope and acrobatically experimental in style. If there's a theme it's disconnection; these songs yearn for what is gone, whether it's a lost love (The Good And The Bad Guy), forgotten inspiration (Magic Rabbit) or lost childhood. As Chris Cornell once did in Soundgarden's Like Suicide, in The Robin's Jar Shara Worden takes the random death of a wild bird and turns it into a metaphor for the failure of innocence.
It's difficult to pick a standout track, but Tori Amos-esque opener Something Of An End is perhaps a good a way as any to let this weirdly gorgeous album in.
first published at subba-cultcha.com
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
very medium, 16 Jul 2008
the thing about PJ Harvey, is that she is now entitled to make lush MOR/acoustic albums. Partly because she's getting old (hey, aren't we all) but also because she's done alternative and edgy to an extreme (think about "rid of me"). The history is tangible in Polly's albums, and between the gentle romance that has been in evidence since Songs from the City, there is still a tone of menace and darkness.
My Brightest Diamond does not have this pedigree, and it shows. Here is PJ Harvey sans PJ History. She sings nice, and plays guitar (and about a billion other gizmos and instruments) pretty good... but this is only half-music. Listenable but not yet extraordinary, it certainly won't offend.
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~ My Brightest Diamond
~ My Brighest Diamond
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