This is my hand

"Alongside her genre-shifting operatic My Brightest Diamond project, Arkansas musician Shara Worden has worked with Sufjan Stevens, The National and Bon Iver. 'This is My Hand', the fifth MBD album, begins with the orchestral sass of 'Pressure'. 'Lover Killer' entices with ghostly vocals until a brassy beat snaps the listener in half with its psychedelic stomp. 'Looking At The Sun' has a haunting These New Puritans quality, before Worden's vocals pounce on 'Shape''s drooping guitars, evoking her contributions to Stevens' 'The Age Of Adz'".

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"This Is My Hand remains ferociously arty. The ideas for this album grew out of a scatologically frank cine-opera called River of Fundament, by composer Jonathan Bepler and Matthew Barney, in which Worden performed. Jared Diamond's study, The Third Chimpanzee, made Worden think about pre-linguistic sound-making. "Oohs" and "beeps", Worden argues on Before the Words, are just as important as words. Unfortunately, the song itself is far too wordy to make the point. It may be news to Worden, but rock'n'roll actually got here first with its "ramalama"s and "woah-oh-oh"s. Elsewhere, she fares better at de-evolving her art. With its brass runs, Lover Killer has internalised the dynamic lessons of dance-pop; there is a seriously funky pre-chorus and a billowy pop denouement. I Am Not the Bad Guy combines a naggingly straightforward riff and building intensity with chamber pop arrangements in the second half. Ultimately, nothing on This Is My Hand gives you an irregular heartbeatquitelike Pressure. But these intense songs, sung with a crystalline elasticity, have located the mojo previously absent from My Brightest Diamond's art".

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"Sange som den orkestertrommende Pressure, den uptempo-hummende Before The Words og den klimaksbyggende This I My Hand er alle gode eksempler på spændende, alsidig detaljerigdom i hendes eksplosive artpop-univers, der kunne ligne, at det lånte lidt fra Joan As Policewoman såvel som den letsvævende stemme og tilgang a la Sufjan Stevens. Desværre er det, som om hun periodevis løber tør for benzin på anden halvdel af albummet, der bryder med den bombastiske tilgang og får et anderledes stillestående og søvndyssende præg".

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