Send "My Brightest Diamond " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Spin |
 As a member of Sufjan Stevens' extended musical family and a participant in the David Byrne-Fatboy Slim epic Here Lies Love, Shara Worden, a.k.a. My Brightest Diamond, makes art-pop at its most stirring. The luminous All Things Will Unwind uses strings, brass, marimba, and mellotron, brilliantly showcasing her operatic, slightly scary voice in tricky songs that remain fresh after repeated plays. And don't be fooled by Worden's cosmic streak: While she gently proclaims, "Love binds the world" on "We Added It Up," the bracing "There's a Rat" unleashes a blast of populist rage....full text |
| Pastemagazine |
| Look at all the arrows in Shara Worden’s quiver. There’s no doubt she’s a member of the music community’s upper echelon—or at least has a spot on the guest list. She has collaboration credits and co-signs from David Byrne, Sufjan Stevens, Justin Vernon, Bryce Dessner (The National), The Decemberists, even performance artist Laurie Anderson. Worden, working under the name My Brightest Diamond, proved with her previous two albums she has the talent and execution to roll with and possibly be named on the indie A-list. But on her third LP All Things Will Unwind, her execution becomes a sad hurdle as Worden designs an album with ambitious themes and ideas, but uses a musical swatch book that shrouds the album’s intent. All Things Will Unwind is pure, conventional orchestral pop. Gone are the noir-rock undertones and the bubbling tension of her earlier albums, and they are replaced in favor of unlimited access to the local orchestra’s storage closet. Worden, with her studied career in music academia, no doubt worked hard to arrange this album for the chamber ensemble yMusic, aka indie-rock’s orchestra for-hire who have played with Bon Iver, Matt Berninger, Antony & The Johnsons, et al. On the surface, the score to the album is quite pleasant and intriguing. The arrangements flutter with violins, flutes, winds and horns of all kind and show off Worden’s creativity and remarkable grasp on compositional theory. Like last year’s Have One On Me, or to a certain extent W H O K I L L, orchestral arrangements in pop music work best when they clarify the form of an already shaped thing. Here, the arrangements often obscure any kind of shape whatsoever. When Worden wants to reaffirm and simplify her love on “Escape Routes,” it’s surrounded by a buzz of flutes and violins that should just be swatted away. Instead of cradling Worden’s lyrics, the ensemble more often than not offers frantic counterpoint or lily-gilding unison melodies to the vocal lines that keeps Worden’s heart and message at a very sad distance. What could be an affecting ’60s protest song about Detroit’s unemployment crisis on “High, Low, Middle” instead suffers from a stale rhythm and by that point in the album, strings that are far past their expiration date....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| Shara Worden's output as My Brightest Diamond is largely unclassifiable, a designation that's favorable in theory but can also be deeply stunting. For years, Worden has drifted between genres and tones (assimilating bits of the opera, classical, indie rock, folk, and experimental canons), letting her vocals act as the lone narrative thread and defining principle. These songs were hers because she was the only person who could sing them, and that felt like enough. Still, while confining artists to a single sound or style might be a philistine's errand, it also gives listeners something recognizable to cling to; there are no bits of boat floating in the water here, and her third LP, All Things Will Unwind, both suffers and succeeds in relation to its scope. Already well known for her collaborations with chamber-oriented musicians (Sufjan Stevens, the National), Worden is now backed by the contemporary ensemble yMusic, who add plenty of playful bits to her oft-ethereal, shifting folk songs. Strummed opener "We Added It Up" is punctuated by various strings and toots; it unfolds like a Rube Goldberg contraption, all call and response. Worden sings about circumstantial incompatibility-- "If I was love/ Then you were shhh"-- with convincing fervor, before the track transforms into a quasi-reassuring mantra. "Love binds the world," Worden and her backing vocalists chant, but it's still hard to know (with good reason) whether those particular shackles are supposed to be a comfort or a curse. It's a pleasantly hazy refrain; Worden's best moments come when she's at her darkest and most uncertain. The excellent "Be Brave" opens quietly, with muted drums and Worden's low growls: "I'm feeling scared and I am overwhelmed," she sings. "Be brave, dear one/ Be changed, be undone," she coaxes, and like "We Added It Up", the song proffers a tiny, passing glimpse of insecurity. Although Worden's vocal performances are varied and borderline virtuosic, it's easy to find yourself wishing for her voice to crack or crumple or fail, to be fallible in a way that's just as beautiful. The carefulness of All Things Will Unwind can feel impenetrable sometimes, and while her closest musical analogue is the equally ambitious Joanna Newsom, Worden lacks Newsom's oddball vulnerability-- it's the difference between performance and possession, and while there's certainly room for both, the former comes, always, with the risk of affectation. All Things Will Unwind's theatrical bent can read as goofy, if not wholly inscrutable (the slow-but-punchy "There's a Rat" feels cartoonish, while "High Low Middle" feels showy, staged). Mostly, though, Worden's drive-- to be so many things, to harness and perfect so many disparate sounds-- makes her work feel more distant than it should....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| Shara Worden's output as My Brightest Diamond is largely unclassifiable, a designation that's favorable in theory but can also be deeply stunting. For years, Worden has drifted between genres and tones (assimilating bits of the opera, classical, indie rock, folk, and experimental canons), letting her vocals act as the lone narrative thread and defining principle. These songs were hers because she was the only person who could sing them, and that felt like enough. Still, while confining artists to a single sound or style might be a philistine's errand, it also gives listeners something recognizable to cling to; there are no bits of boat floating in the water here, and her third LP, All Things Will Unwind, both suffers and succeeds in relation to its scope. Already well known for her collaborations with chamber-oriented musicians (Sufjan Stevens, the National), Worden is now backed by the contemporary ensemble yMusic, who add plenty of playful bits to her oft-ethereal, shifting folk songs. Strummed opener "We Added It Up" is punctuated by various strings and toots; it unfolds like a Rube Goldberg contraption, all call and response. Worden sings about circumstantial incompatibility-- "If I was love/ Then you were shhh"-- with convincing fervor, before the track transforms into a quasi-reassuring mantra. "Love binds the world," Worden and her backing vocalists chant, but it's still hard to know (with good reason) whether those particular shackles are supposed to be a comfort or a curse. It's a pleasantly hazy refrain; Worden's best moments come when she's at her darkest and most uncertain. The excellent "Be Brave" opens quietly, with muted drums and Worden's low growls: "I'm feeling scared and I am overwhelmed," she sings. "Be brave, dear one/ Be changed, be undone," she coaxes, and like "We Added It Up", the song proffers a tiny, passing glimpse of insecurity. Although Worden's vocal performances are varied and borderline virtuosic, it's easy to find yourself wishing for her voice to crack or crumple or fail, to be fallible in a way that's just as beautiful. The carefulness of All Things Will Unwind can feel impenetrable sometimes, and while her closest musical analogue is the equally ambitious Joanna Newsom, Worden lacks Newsom's oddball vulnerability-- it's the difference between performance and possession, and while there's certainly room for both, the former comes, always, with the risk of affectation. All Things Will Unwind's theatrical bent can read as goofy, if not wholly inscrutable (the slow-but-punchy "There's a Rat" feels cartoonish, while "High Low Middle" feels showy, staged). Mostly, though, Worden's drive-- to be so many things, to harness and perfect so many disparate sounds-- makes her work feel more distant than it should....full text |
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