My Brightest Diamond – Bring Me the Workhorse (Album)
Hailing from intensely musical roots and boasting impressive classically-trained credentials, Shara Worden has been composing and performing since childhood – in recent years earning a reputation for her flamboyantly theatrical live shows and providing backing vocals to acclaimed indie-folkster Sufjan Stevens. So it's hard to believe that she is only now, at the age of 30, releasing her own material commercially, under the handle of My Brightest Diamond. MBD's debut offering is a spell-binding concoction of melodrama and magic that is both unsettling and exhilarating. A deeply personal storybook of songs, played out with intense conviction, it fuses a vast array of genres, and displays influences from PJ Harvey to Puccini. Classically orchestrated strings sweep away happily beneath distorted prog-rock guitars, which are in turn dusted with tinkling bells, wurlitzers and the occasional accordion, all held together by Worden's strikingly accomplished vocals.
Paradoxically titled Something of an End, the opening track stirs gently into action, employing an eerie build-up technique, rather reminiscent of a horror film soundtrack. Swinging between fragile tenderness and unnerving urgency, it breaks suddenly into an apocalyptic fervour to declare: “Heaven and Hell come crashing down...So beautiful and terrible”. Before the resulting goosebumps have had a chance to subside, Golden Star kicks in with a rockier, faster-paced feel, giving the first real taste of Worden's true vocal range, as she soars effortlessly into some breathtaking high notes. Gone Away and We Were Sparkling are softly mournful ballads of romantic heartache and grief, presumably inspired by real-life, whereas Dragonfly, Magic Rabbit and Robin's Jar veer more into the fairytale realm, conjuring dream-like images of childhood fancy. The mosh-worthy Freak Out pretty much lives up to its name, providing a welcome release amidst all the spooky tension that haunts the rest of the album.
Largely preoccupied with melancholic themes of death and loss, Bring Me the Workhorse is a bittersweet lament on life, though definitely more rousing than depressing - exploring the darker side of life with an appropriate sense of drama. The Workhorse of the title is also the title and subject of its closing track, which reflects on the transient nature of existence - how, like a workhorse that has “lost all its usefulness”, everything fades and eventually moves on. Let's hope that this will not be the case for My Brightest Diamond, who, based on this impressive debut, seem destined to shine for many years to come.
Also available: Tear It Down – a remix album of Bring Me the Workhorse
www.mybrightestdiamond.com |
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