My Brightest Diamond - Bring Me The Workhorse

Genre rock Publisher Asthmatic Kitty External Links Official My Brightest Diamond Website Official Asthmatic Kitty Website

My Brightest Diamond’s debut album, Bring Me the Workhorse, is a strong and passionate album that gets better with each listen. Shara Worden is the woman behind the extraordinary voice that seamlessly takes the listener on a fantastic journey through dreamy, operatic, and poetic states of mind. All the songs on this album are worth a listen. Each song contributes to the whole quite effectively.

The opening track, “Something of an End” is a well-crafted composition and a strong opener. It’s vocally, lyrically, and musically powerful. When Worden declares, "The earth started shaking/yeah, it was crazy/Heaven and Hell came crashing down. It was beautiful and terrible...it demands the listener’s undivided attention to the urgency expressed in these words.

“Gone Away” is a plaintive song of a woman counting the time since her lover went away. She relates that she’s kept all his letters, clothes, and every other possible reminder. In the end though, she seems more accepting of his not returning and wants to escape her misery. She yells, "Get me off/this is a ride going nowhere but somewhere I despise." The melancholy rhythm and voice make us feel compassion for the abandoned desperate lover.

On “Freak Out,” Worden sounds like Bjork and Fiona Apple. The song has a more rock feel to it than the others, because of the guitars and the loud, fast paced vocals. “The Robin’s Jar” has smooth guitars - reminiscent of The White Stripes - while telling two sad childhood stories: burying a dead robin and a good friend. “Workhorse” is a strong closer to Bring Me the Workhorse. It’s music and vocals are haunting, prompting the listener to start the album again in search of the more upbeat vocals.

The rhythmic variety, the versatility of Worden’s voice, and the range of feelings evoked in the eleven tracks that comprise Bring Me the Workhorse, are what make it such a strong album. The lyrics are intelligent and have powerful emotions attached to them. Any album that can keep the listener entertained and surprised, as this one does so well, is worth listening to over and over again.