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’. ‘This Is My Hand’ should see her join him, her other collaborators and St Vincent in the US experimental pop pantheon.
Robert Cooke