My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse

Shara Worden adapts her serious classical voice wonderfully to a sort of Kate Bush-inspired theatrical art-pop style on her debut album. The songs generally go like so: a verse with the barest of soft rock backings, then some strings swell up and her voice is let loose in its higher register for a big-emotion chorus, like "it was beautiful! and terrible!" "I feel like a golden star... exploding!" "come and fly away.. with me!". But it's a pattern that works, since the tunes are well written and she carries them with a Real Voice - several octaves of true power but never gratuitously flashy. She does a fine line in creepy animal tales on "The Robin's Jar" and, with some almost Led Zeppelin-like grinding rock, on "Magic Rabbit". Though "Freak Out" "freaks out" with slightly too self-conscious piano plonks and yelping. Several times she achieves the sultry langour of Goldfrapp's "Felt Mountain". Quite tasty stuff.

August 28, 2008

8 out of 10

See blog entry: More female singers (30 Aug, 2008)

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