A Thousand Shark's Teeth

A Thousand Shark's Teeth is the second studio album from the American rock group My Brightest Diamond.

A Thousand Shark's Teeth
Studio album by
My Brightest Diamond
Released2 June 2008
GenreIndie rock
Length46:02
LabelAsthmatic Kitty
My Brightest Diamond chronology
Tear It Down
(2007)		 A Thousand Shark's Teeth
(2008)		 Shark Remixes Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4
(2010)

Content

The eleven-track album was released on vinyl, compact disc, and digital download with Asthmatic Kitty, on 2 June 2008. It was produced and arranged by Worden, and recorded in Los Angeles, California and New York City, and Berlin, Germany, by Husky Höskulds, who also mixed the album.[1] The album took six years to complete, and was originally conceived to be recorded as string quartet pieces.[2] In comparison with their prior album, Tear It Down, A Thousand Shark's Teeth contains more orchestration, elegant instrumentation and arrangements, and features soprano and pizzicata strings, strings, keys and percussion. It draws comparison to the music of French composer Maurice Ravel, musicians Tricky, Evelyn Glennie and Tom Waits, and the group Portishead.[3]

The bonus track "The Gentlest Gentleman" was included with a download of the album via the iTunes store.[2]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic
The A.V. ClubC+
Robert Christgau
Pitchfork Media(6.1/10)
Popmatters(7/10)

A review by AllMusic says that "strangely, despite the album's elaborate scope, at times A Thousand Shark's Teeth is too subtle to make a strong initial impression. However, when the album does connect -- usually when the arrangements and melodies are more direct -- the results are stunning. As it stands, A Thousand Shark's Teeth is beautiful, more than a little insular, and ultimately intriguing for anyone willing to listen closely."[3] Pitchfork calls Worden "a creative chameleon with endless wells of technical skill," and says the song "The Gentlest Gentleman" is a "stunningly simple ukelee ditty [that] gives the singer away more than a thousand of violins ever could."[2]

PopMatters says it is "a swooning, big-gestured album to get lost in[,] discovering new complexities and subtleties each time."[1] A mixed review from The A.V. Club describes A Thousand Shark's Teeth as a "bleaker, creepier expansion of Worden's symphonic rock," but note the song "From the Top of the World" "balanc[es] space, ambient hissing, darkness, mystery, and melody with the patience that made Workhorse catch on."[4]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Shara Worden.

No.TitleLength
1."Inside a Boy"3:43
2."The Ice & The Storm"5:22
3."If I Were Queen"2:37
4."Apples"2:28
5."From the Top of the World"4:02
6."Black & Costaud"4:22
7."To Pluto's Moon"6:49
8."Bass Player"4:33
9."Goodbye Forever"3:53
10."Like a Sieve"3:03
11."The Diamond"5:02
Total length:46:02
gollark: They mostly just exploit human social processing stuff rather than magically zapping changes into your brain.
gollark: Advertising is optimized to make you buy/do a thing. It just isn't *that* effective, compared to cognitohazards in fiction.
gollark: They kind of already have, but pretty mild ones.
gollark: There was a buffer or something it needed which didn't seem to exist because of me hackily patching stuff together, so I just assumed 512 bytes was enough.
gollark: There are probably horrible issues in the code I hackily tweaked, but I can't see them and it doesn't cause immediate crashing, so I ignored it.

References
Citations
  1. Raper 2008.
  2. Dombal 2008.
  3. Phares 2008.
  4. Gordon 2008.
Bibliography
  • Christgau, Robert (2008), "My Brightest Diamond", The Village Voice, retrieved 8 April 2019
  • Dombal, Ryan (20 June 2008), "My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth", Pitchfork, archived from the original on 26 June 2008
  • Gordon, Scott (17 June 2008), "My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth", The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 26 June 2008
  • Phares, Heather (2008), "My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth", AllMusic, retrieved 8 April 2019
  • Raper, Dan (17 June 2008), "My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth", PopMatters, archived from the original on 23 July 2008
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