My_Brightest_Diamond-Bring_Me_The_Workhorse-2006-RTB

ARTIST: My Brightest Diamond
TITLE: Bring Me the Workhorse
LABEL: Asthmatic Kitty Records
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 189kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 45m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-08-22
RIP DATE: 2006-08-12
Track List
----------
1. Something Of An End 4:51
2. Golden Star 2:55
3. Gone Away 4:42
4. Dragonfly 5:24
5. Freak Out 3:33
6. We Were Sparkling 2:43
7. Disappear 4:05
8. The Robin's Jar 3:20
9. Magic Rabbit 5:25
10. The Good & The Bad Guy 4:16
11. Workhorse 4:44
Release Notes:
http://www.mybrightestdiamond.com/
http://www.myspace.com/mybrightestdiamond
http://www.asthmatickitty.com/
Bring Me The Workhorse courageously gathers all the essential elements of
classical and pop to create an album that breaks down the barriers of both
worlds. These songs are simultaneously gentle and urgent, evoking moments of
tremendous joy and sorrow with the magnitude of Italian opera and the modesty of
a Japanese haiku.
Under Sharas gaze, ordinary objects begin to have supernatural meanings. A
robins nest, a grocery list, a glass bottle come to represent love, mortality,
and the overwhelming need to "freak out" every once in a while. Shara is not
afraid to use superlatives. But she also considers the benefits of self-control.
This is most evident in the carefulness of her arrangements. Earthy drums and
bass guitar are augmented by Celeste, music boxes, prepared piano, and a string
quartet; each song is scrupulously composed and arranged by Shara herself.
Sharas songwriting reconciles the high art of opera with the low-brow of the
folk song by compounding them into a form that is both as sublime as it is
pragmatic. The music is set in transcendent landscapes familiar to Wagners
operas, but it is also planted firmly in the materials of everyday life: dirt,
tree branches, bird feathers and thrown away charms. Strings and chimes beckon
mysterious apparitions, but Sharas tone of voice is dead serious.
Almost every song pivots around a moment of crisis, distilling stories to their
most distressing points of contact: a phone call, an injured horse, a dragonfly
caught in a spiders web. Shara doesnt share all the information just the
stuff that matters. The effect is a sensational compression of time, in which an
entire event is summarized in a single note. This, of course, is the essence of
opera. But My Brightest Diamond is much more than musical theater.