New Music: My Brightest Diamond, "A Thousand Shark's Teeth"

Yet another music review submitted by Craig Gidney.

Shara Worden has been likened to the late Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright. Like both artists, she augments her quirky, dark compositions with rock, cabaret and symphonic influences. Her compositions are complex as mid period Joni Mitchell (The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira) put out. Vibraphones, wurlitzers and odd percussion decorate songs that change tempos and tones, from waltz to rock to art song.

Worden's voice is a powerful and rich alto, with a rarely utilized awesome operatic high end. The romantic ballad "If I Were Queen" belongs in some bizarre Sondheim musical, while "The Top of the World" is a twisted, sauntering sea shanty. "Black and Coustad" is gothic in the Flannery O'Connor sense (rather than the black eyeliner kind): scratchy, twenties-style singing, sinister bassoons. "To Pluto's Moon" hangs out in David Lynch's cabaret lounge, on skittering harp strings. Some songs rock, like the blistering strings and guitar opener "Inside A Boy." Her lyrics full of convoluted imagery that occasionally comes across as precious. But that's a small quibble. Most listeners will be lost in the cinematic grandeur of "A Thousand Shark's Teeth."