My Brightest Diamond

My Brightest Diamond plays this week and it should be a lush, orchestra-heavy sonic experience. Here's what we wrote about MBD this week:

Gothic Fairytale Chic

Imagine if a mezzo-soprano opera star got her own backing rock band, complete with string section and distortion pedals. That pretty much sums up Brooklyn’s My Brightest Diamond. Fronted by cultural maiden Shara Worden, MBD incorporates equal parts Tori Amos, Portishead and City of Lost Children. MBD’s sophomore release, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, kicks off with “Inside a Boy,” a rare high-energy track emoting Worden’s “love, love, love” for a boy. On an album of mostly slumberous lullabies, the opening song is a blitzkrieg. “Apples” also drenches Worden’s matter-of-fact narrative lyrics with a peppy drumbeat and staccato vibraphones, with pleasing results.

MBD veers into Gypsy-cabaret territory on “Black and Costaud,” imagining the fictional Belgium character Le Schtroumpf Costaud in a boxing match. But Worden loses me with lyrics that seemingly wandered off the page of a sophomore creative writing student’s notebook: “Black and Costaud / Black and chic / Black, black, black / Jolly fellow, jolly fellow, black.” As the centerpiece of the album, it’s a misstep that Teeth doesn’t fully recover from until the final track, the Beth Gibbons-inspired “The Diamond.” But, as far as dark soap operas go, Teeth succeeds time and time again. My Brightest Diamond plays with Clare & the Reasons at 9 pm Friday, Nov. 21, at WOW Hall. $12 adv., $14 door.

Also, listen/download MBD's cover of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". Not what I'd expect from MBD. This is a good thing.