My Brightest Diamond – A Thousand Shark’s Teeth

A Thousand Shark’s Teeth – My Brightest Diamond

By Chris Peken

Shara Worden has a beautiful voice. Classically trained, precise and pristine – she is immaculate in terms of her  vocals. A Thousand Shark’s Teeth is My Brightest Diamond’s second album, written, produced and even occasionally engineered by Worden herself. With the most elegant of instrumentation; the strings and keyboards are nothing if not ambitious in their attempts to create three-dimensional landscapes for Worden’s voice to explore, they are occasionally cabaret-like, and always impressive in skill. So why does A Thousand Shark’s Teeth leave you feeling cold’ With the odd exception – such as the dark 60’s symphonic pop of From the Top of the World – the perfection of Worden and company is clinical in its execution, to the point of being surgically sterile. The glint of steel more prevalent than the warmth of wood. Six years in the making, every days seems accounted for as their search for perfection has eliminated any element of spontaneity, any stray moment of unexpected playfulness replaced with a coldly perfect note, a precision placed paused. The disconnection between vocals and instruments is at best ethereal, at worst disconcerting. A particular beast, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth is ambitious but unfulfilling.

** 1/2