My Brightest Diamond

My Brightest Diamond, a.k.a. Shara Worden, released her second album last week.  I don't have A Thousand Shark's Teeth yet but I'm going to snag a copy on vinyl as soon as possible.  The tracks I've heard from it, online and during a live set earlier this year at SXSW, are even more haunting, gorgeous, challenging and ambitious than those on her first album.  I love to hear an artist grow, mature and stretch, filling an ever more unique shape amongst the edges of their influences.  I usually despise it when people compare artists to Jeff Buckley, either because the comparison is completely unfounded, or because the comparison just highlights outright imitation.  Shara comes close to copping a few of Jeff's most unique legacies in her vocals, songwriting and guitar tones, but for some reason I register her similarities as tributes and not theft.

I got to see Shara perform at SXSW earlier this year in a church with gorgeous acoustics.  I sat with dear friends, eating homemade cookies we bought from the churchgoing ladies while Shara serenaded us with her opera-quality voice, theatrical garb, and comfortable command of dynamics.  Watch this live performance from Other Music (a record store in NYC - I used to work right across the street from it) for a taste of Shara's talents.

Hear more of Shara's thoughts about the new record:

Shark's Teeth - Part I from My Brightest Diamond.

The copy editor in me would like to point out, due to the placement of the apostrophe in the album title, that we're talking here about one thousand teeth (which come from a shark), and not all the teeth from one thousand sharks.

• Buy A Thousand Shark's Teeth from Insound (mp3).