My Brightest Diamond - 'Bring Me The Workhorse' (Asthmatickitty) Released 13/08/07

Michigan born Shara Worden cut her teeth playing in Sufjan Stevens notorious Illinoisemakers in support of his 'Illinois' album which she had lent her voice to. Released on Sufjan's own label and self-produced, 'Bring Me The Workhorse' has come about as a departure from Shara's classical training in opera due to her love of artists such as Antony and the Johnsons, Rebecca Moore and Nina Nistasia, allowing her sensual voice a breadth that draws favourable comparisons with Tori Amos, Natasha Khan and Hanne Hukkleberg resulting in this visceral gothic indie album. 

Pixies sound-alike 'Something Of An End' has angular guitars to lush composition and finds a chorus where "...heaven and hell came crashing down...", whereas 'Magic Rabbit' comes with a gothic indie calling card, and 'Golden Star' the Patti Smith riffs augmented by strings. Operatic flights come with the lovelorn 'Gone Away' like a cross of Antony and the Johnsons and a Kurt Weill operatic - "...May June July I count the time/ every minute I go takes the smell of your clothes further away..." proves a stirring torch-song, and the voice light and delicate on the string-fed 'Dragonfly' and 'The Robin's Jar' reminding of Hanne Hukkleberg.

'Freak Out' is a gift for Pixies fans with the shackles breaking off - "...so let's dance/ and freak out..." all angular guitars, strangled bass and pounding drums, yet the voice on slower numbers remains the most convincing reflection of where this woman's talent lies - 'We Were Sparkling' a case in point, where Shara's voice is haunting and passionate yet melancholic - evoking loss in the reflections of light through glass, with 'The Good and Bad Guy' comes the realisation of how we gloss over someone's faults and the other half doesn't always measure up, 'Disappear' finds Shara's range like a female Jeff Buckley of someone who doesn't fit in with the order of things - "...'cause I get tired/ of sneaky societies/ and combat boots..." resting on strings and percussion.

'Bring Me The Workhorse' finds Shara's sensual vocals dressed with an gothic indie garb of guitars and symphonic strings, and symbolist lyrics like a young Sylvia Plath evoking loss, decay and desire through a no good workhorse, the death of a robin, the flight of a dragonfly and a magic rabbit - 'Bring Me The Workhorse' comes across as a sensual and broody  genre-busting album which listeners of P.J. Harvey, Bat For Lashes and The Pixies will take to with a relish.