My Brightest Diamond

The Son also rises

As a novel approach to making a record, Ryan Lott (aka Son Lux) took a challenge pitched by NPR’s ‘All Songs Considered’ host, Robin Hilton, to write and record an entire album, from start to finish, in four weeks this past February.

Hilton’s offer was inspired by the music magazine, ‘Wire,’ which invites musicians everywhere to produce an entire record each February, the shortest month of the year — 10 tracks, or 35 minutes of music in four short weeks.

The 32-year-old producer-composer was understandably highly reluctant and fearful of such pressure. But the more he thought about it, the more taken Lott was with the concept and challenge.

With the exception of vocals, Lott did the basic tracks in the first 15 days. But, he was forced to write parts for accompanists on the fly; sometimes, he was so rushed that the additions could only be communicated verbally, rather than written out. There are contributions from My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, the Antlers’ Peter Silberman, Midlake, and DM Stith.

The results of what became Lott’s second full-length are both strangely compelling and unique.

The musician’s classical training is evidenced in the complex, detailed arrangements. But it’s the way he fuses experimental pop and electronica sensibilities that take "We Are Rising," to another otherworldly dimension. In fact, it’s easy to imagine that this might be what pop music sounds like in some other galaxy or planet.

You wouldn’t mistake this for the Beach Boys, but the writing and bizarre sonic marriages aren’t far from Brian Wilson’s most adventurous work (think original sessions for "Smile"). There are also similarities to the odder pieces by 10 CC (Godley & Creme), Sparks and even Xiu Xiu — albeit, much more accessible.

That’s the magic of it: The material vacillates from very sparse to celestially lush, even within the span of a single song.

The opening track, "Flickers," evokes a space-age opera that Björk or Rufus Wainwright — whom Lott’s voice resembles— might sing. And while the melodies are written in a strong, chamber-pop tradition, many have little to none of the usual percussion and production heard in most of today’s commercial recordings. When they are used, as in songs like the ominously beautiful "Claws" and the tribal beat of "Let Go," they make a menacing, heavy statement.

Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond Steps Out | Bleader

Shara Worden is a remarkable singer. The leader of My Brightest Diamond , who play tonight at Lincoln Hall , she earned a bachelor's degree in opera at the University of North Texas. That kind of classical technique hardly guarantees that someone will know what to do with such a voice in rock music, though—in fact, it's usually a drawback. But Worden, who first attracted notice as a backup singer for Sufjan Stevens, is an exception. The two records she's made as My Brightest Diamond— Bring Me the Workhorse isn't really a pop-rock effort, though there are plenty of rock rhythms and hooky melodies—Snider's art songs deal in motific development rather than verse-chorus-verse structures. Worden's singing is hardly bombastic or operatic but rather carefully pitched to the concision of the material—she doesn't sound terribly different here than she does in My Brightest Diamond.