My Brightest Diamond - Bring me the workhorse
American singer songwriter Shara Worden is the main component in this original and rather different bled of music. 'Bring me the workhorse' is the debut contribution to the world of music from My Brightest Diamond and contains some strange mixes of genres from classical and opera to rock and indie.
The vocal and musical aptitudes here are individually able to achieve true success, but when put side-by-side, lacks in achievement. The album acts as a departure for Worden in her classical training in opera and an attempted move towards a more mainstream sound. Her vocal ability as a classical/opera singer is sheer talent. She uses the word "crashing" in a tongue twister expression on 'Something of an end' and tends to get wavy on 'Dragonfly'. Unfortunately, the vocals give the impression of a high-pitched moan like a banshee on 'We were Sparkling' in which if her aim was to appear creepy, she succeeds. Vocals are awful and screechy on 'Freak out' and get very dreary around 'Gone away'.
The musicians that have put their two cents into the instrumentals on the album have mainly done a tremendous job. 'Dragonfly' has a catchy beat that I found my pen tapping to it. The electric section is by all means the best part, and builds to some intensity. The chimes are a nice touch on 'Disappear' but the base is like an annoying ticking clock counting down the seconds before the boring world that is this album pulls you into its embrace.
The entire album in its separated halves sounds like each could cope in the charts – vocals in the classical sense and music in the rock/indie sense – but when placed together the album becomes one huge depression for the listener as it slips in and out of reality. I had to resist pressing the skip button, or the stop for that matter, just to get myself to the end of the album.
Whether you want rich vocals or quiet and atmospheric music, this album has each, but when placed atop each other, forms one disastrous dish.