It's not surprising that My Brightest Diamond's second album was originally intended to be a string quartet-based work, or that it was six years in the making. A Thousand Shark's Teeth is much more orchestrated, polished, and ambitious than Bring Me the Workhorse, and draws even more from Shara Worden's classical training (as well as the work of Maurice Ravel, Tricky, Tom Waits, and painter Anselm Kiefer). The album's elegant instrumentation and arrangements are nothing if not impressive, whether they're relatively simple, as on "If I Were Queen," which concentrates on Worden's immaculate soprano and pizzicato strings, or lavish, as on "Inside a Boy," where chilly strings and keyboards rise to meet Worden's ice princess vocals. However, A Thousand Shark's Teeth sacrifices some of the playfulness and energy that made Bring Me the Workhorse so compelling, and at times Worden's ambitions come close to getting the better of her. "Apples"' plinking percussion -- which owes as much to Evelyn Glennie as it does to Tom Waits -- makes day-to-day chores like folding laundry sound like performance art, and as eerily lovely as "Black & Coustaud" is, its frosty cabaret whimsy is so theatrical that it vaguely resembles an avant-garde show tune. Strangely, despite the album's elaborate scope, at times A Thousand Shark's Teeth is too subtle to make a strong initial impression. However, when the album does connect -- usually when the arrangements and melodies are more direct -- the results are stunning. "From the Top of the World" warms up the mostly frosty sonics and resembles a distant, darker cousin of '60s symphonic pop, a feeling echoed by "To Pluto's Moon," which channels John Barry and Portishead into a goth spy theme. "Bass Player"'s smoky sensuality makes it another standout, while "The Diamond" and "Ice & the Storm" are immediately accessible without compromising the album's lofty themes and sounds. Big ambition means the potential for an equally big failure, and while that's not the case on A Thousand Shark's Teeth, the album is sometimes too over-thought for its own good. Arguably, it's more interesting for Worden to bring some of her high art background to a pop context, as she did on Bring Me the Workhorse, than vice versa. As it stands, A Thousand Shark's Teeth is beautiful, more than a little insular, and ultimately intriguing for anyone willing to listen closely.
What would happen if there was a young woman who had a degree in opera, had years of vigorous vocal training under her belt, and had spent the past several years experimenting with songwriting? Imagine that this young woman grew up reading Lewis Carroll, listening to Edith Piaf, Debussy, and learning from family members including a travelling guitar-playing Evangelist, a National Accordion Cham...
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I just LOVE this new video!!!!!!! well we know I love quirk....Tour dates with Clare & The Reasons... wow busy beavers!!!!10/28 - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall10/30 - Portland, ME @ Space10/31 - Fall River, MA @ Narrows Center for the Arts11/02 - Buffalo, NY @ Big Orbit's Soundlab11/03 - Oberlin, OH @ Oberlin College11/05 - Grand Rapids, MI @ The Ladies Literary Club11/06 - Danville,...
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What would happen if there was a young woman who had a degree in opera, had years of vigorous vocal training under her belt, and had spent the past several years experimenting with songwriting? Imagine that this young woman grew up reading Lewis Carroll, listening to Edith Piaf, Debussy, and learning from family members including a travelling guitar-playing Evangelist, a National Accordion Cham...
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My Brightest Diamond is finishing a sophomore release, the follow up to 2006's Bring Me The Workhorse. The new album is called A Thousand Shark's Teeth and it will be released on Asthmatic Kitty (Sufjan Stevens' label) on June 17th if all goes well. According to a report in Prefix Mag today:Worden grabbed from disparate sources to craft the album, as "Black and Costaud" features lyrics lifted...
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Shara Worden writes some of the most fanciful lyrics and creates some of the most brilliant worlds of words and music i have ever heard of. Inside a boy I found a universe And in his eyes Are a thousand stars On a dark sky We are clouds We are whispers Like fawns and shape-shifters Our edges can never be found out No, our edges keep moving further out We are stars colliding Now we crash Like ...
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Shara Worden -- Outsiders expert -- has a new video for the dreamy A Thousand Shark's Teeth track "From The Top Of The World." I have no idea what is going on in it. It's like a fairy tale made of green screens and papier-mâché, with a side of "Tonight, Tonight " and a crazy gold faced mustache guy in the clouds who's inappropriately fixated on Shara's arm. Oh and the whole thing takes place o.
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She's so sweet .. how can you not love Shara's beautiful singing and songwriting...
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Not only is this an amazing rooftop scene with great camera shots and angles, it is a beautiful and mesmerizing performance with an orchestral background... just beautiful!
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Shara Worden played a session at Daytrotter. She played some tracks from her 2008 release, "A Thousand Shark's Teeth". She also played the b-side, 'The Gentlest Gentleman'. The tracklisting for the session is below, you can download the tracks from the session here . My Brightest Diamond Daytrotter Session : 1. From The Top Of The World 2. Inside A Boy 3. Apples 4. The Gentlest Gentleman ...
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New video for "Inside A Boy" from My Brightest Diamond. Great song & great animation, i love it! Kudos to Rafa Toro who directed, animated & designed the video."Inside A Boy" belongs to her latest effort, A Thousand Shark's Teeth out via Asthmatic Kitty Records & available now on iTunes ."Inside A Boy" | download My Brightest Diamond | Myspace | Tour Dates | Buy
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Inside a Boy |
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| 2 Ice & the Storm |
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| 3 If I Were Queen |
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| 4 Apples |
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| 5 From the Top of the World |
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| 6 Black & Costaud |
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| 7 To Pluto's Moon |
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| 8 Bass Player |
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| 9 Goodbye Forever |
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| 10 Like a Sieve |
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| 11 The Diamond |
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 "A Thousand Shark's Teeth")
