Categories : Featured Review, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
Multi-instrumentalist and former leader of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoisemakers, Shara Worden continues her solo career as My Brightest Diamond with her sophomore effort, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. Originally planned to be a string quartet album, Worden wisely allowed the album to evolve naturally in the studio, but the results are mixed.
With her blend of art-rock and operatic singing, she occasionally stumbles upon transcendent moments, especially in the album’s early stages. The album’s shortest songs, ‘If I Were Queen’ and ‘Apples,’ prove to be its best. The former is a slow-building string number, and Worden appropriately sings underneath the strings instead of overtop of them. The latter is a dream-like percussionists’ number, collecting a wide array of sounds and piecing them together perfectly.
Most of the album’s latter songs amount to little more than gothic backdrops, conjuring images of candle-lit castle hallways, only the hallways are too long, and there isn’t any interesting art on the walls. As the album meanders to its conclusion, the droning, emotionally monotonous tone takes its toll.
Despite the album’s difficult nature, you can’t help but feel that Worden is an extremely worthwhile artist whose ideas sometimes get the better of her. Shark’s Teeth is hardly a reason to write her off long-term.
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