Geeky CD Review: A Golden Star Explodes
"Bring Me the Workhorse" My Brightest Diamond 
Every once in a while you stumble on an musician that you are excited about, but you're not entirely certain whether you just like it because the artist's influences are comfortably familiar to you, or if this person brings an individuality to your listening creature comforts. Shara Worden, My Brightest Diamond's mastermind and long time Sufjan Stevens live band member, immediately brings to mind Bjork and P.J. Harvey on her solo debut. In the same instant though, Worden's musical background differentiates her.
The most refreshing thing about Shara's approach to her music is that the instrumentation is hardly an afterthought. Having been classically trained in her college years, Worden's fantastic guitar and piano work serve to strengthen the web she weaves to catch new listeners. But instead of using her instrumental ability gaudily, she chooses to hide it in a complex fog that let's her vocals soar in the clear air above.
Similar in feeling to the late Jeff Buckley's Grace, her earnest, yearning lyrical patterns give Bring Me the Workhorse a heavy feel. Lead off "Something of An End" leads you into the dry, blinding lights of "Golden Star" and Worden makes you believe her lyrics that "everything has come undone/the distance between us." Just when you feel the gravity of the album could be overbearing the song "Freak Out" slaps you in the face with Sonic Youth-like dissonance and is a good change of pace.
The highlight of Bring Me the Workhorse lies in the churning cello-laced "Disappear." Recalling the beauty of Portishead's equally orchestrated and electronic approach, "Disappear" tells of a person tired of the pitfalls of modern life and warning friends not to be "too shocked" when she leaves to escape it all.
The title track closer uses a dirty Rhodes piano to show how methodically Worden has pieced together the songs on Bring Me the Workhorse and instead of a bitter aftertaste of feeling she copied her predecessors, you're left with a sweet amalgamate of blended muses turned into something very unique.
Pick up My Brightest Diamond on 
What say you?!