Music Review: My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Shark's Teeth
I remember hearing My Brightest Diamond for the first time. My collection isn't exactly chock full of bands that I've discovered live. So it was remarkable that she, as an opening act for Sufjan Stevens, was able to capture my attention so immediately.
Let's settle one thing: Shara Worden is probably the most captivating live performer on the indie rock circuit - spellbinding voice, flowing sets with well-chosen cover songs - she's incredible.
Naturally, the studio tends to kill the focus and (more surprisingly) the dynamic of her songs, but the freshness of her debut Bring Me the Workhorse was able to overcome that dampening.
Now, on her second studio attempt, it's becoming painfully clear that she's at home on the road. And more frighteningly, her creativity is starting to suffer as a result.
Opener and first single "Inside a Boy" breaks an album cardinal rule: never put your best track first. It captures the intensity of Worden's concert presence much like Workhorse did, with interesting grinding guitars and vocal acrobatics.
The rest of Shark's Teeth is painstakingly propped up by the syncopation of Shara's fantastic rhythm section and the fervent backing of strings, starting with second track "Ice & the Storm". But nothing Earl Harvin (drummer) and Chris Bruce (bassist) can do quite rescues the record from its primary flaw, the lyrics.
Worden, with all her diaphragmatic graces, seems utterly lost with words. The nouns "stars" and "diamonds" and the adjectives "sparkling" and "shining" tend to comprise the whole of her grammatical universe. This plagues Shark's Teeth so badly that the phrases sung in French during "Black & Costaud" are a welcome change.
Songs like "To Pluto's Moon" (towards the end) and closer "The Diamond" substitute weighted repetition of lyrics instead of innovative lines: "Why did you go like this?/I slam against the wall" she wails on, almost in frustration with herself.
"Like a Sieve" with its esoteric brevity is a momentary answer. Much like a watery version of "Magic Rabbit" from Workhorse, it tells the story of a woman sinking into the depths of her own tears, enveloping dead leaves and fish in the process. A simple plot, but one that isn't tiresome by the end.
Sadly though Shark's Teeth floats dead at the surface for the most part, and it's tragic to see someone as talented as Worden wallowing in it.
I propose, though, a few changes that may redeem her third record when it comes.
First of all, write all of it (and even track it) on this coming tour - during sound checks, and with the help of the band - to capture the nervousness and the ensuing brave energy that makes the shows so amazing. Then, write the lyrics like a book of poetry - much like Joanna Newsom did on Ys. Be vague. Make us dig deeper for meaning.
Surely the right format exists for Shara Worden to make great studio LPs, A Thousand Shark's Teeth just isn't that format. But I think all of us love her music enough to wait patiently while she works out the kinks.
What say you?!