MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND > A Thousand Shark’s Teeth

Six years in the making, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth may only be My Brightest Diamond’s sophomore effort, but it’s still one hell of a magnum opus for leading lady Shera Worden. In the works even before 2006’s Bring Me the Workhorsebroke into the critical conscious, Shark’s Teeth has slowly stewed into a brooding oeuvre.

Label: ASTHMATIC KITTY
[RATING: 4]

Six years in the making, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth may only be My Brightest Diamond’s sophomore effort, but it’s still one hell of a magnum opus for leading lady Shera Worden. In the works even before 2006’s Bring Me the Workhorse broke into the critical conscious, Shark’s Teeth has slowly stewed into a brooding oeuvre. Worden’s warbly croon and deceptive cadence troll every lyric. It’s the plucked harp of “To Pluto’s Moon” and low-lit marimba splashes of “Bass Player” that retains the album’s classical roots, though the almost liturgical “Black & Costaud” borrows lyrics from a Ravel opera. Shark’s Teeth‘s counterpoints with Björk’s eldritch Vespertine and Tom Waits’ back-alley accents are evident, but with this level of talent, Worden easily stands as their rightful peer.