When interviewed about the process behind This Is My Hand, Shara Worden’s fourth LP under the My Brightest Diamond moniker, the operatically-trained singer mentioned writing with a vivid image in mind: an “imaginary tribe of people, gathering around a fire, making music together, telling stories, hearing from the shaman.” The energy of community has fed some of Worden’s best work in the past decade. Beginning with the supporting musicians that helped foster her experimental cabaret pop as AwRY in the early aughts and expanding outward to yMusic’s effervescent chamber music orchestrations on MBD’s last full-length, 2011’s All Things Will Unwind, a sense of collaboration has become as essential to the My Brightest Diamond project as Worden's inimitably acrobatic voice. It’s fitting, then, that Worden has turned that mentality into methodology for follow-up This Is My Hand. Self-produced by Worden with support from keyboardist Zac Rae, This Is My Hand is an often successful exercise in percussive, jagged art-pop that explores themes of self-acceptance, sensuality, and community.
In a frustrating bit of organization, This Is My Hand’s most memorable moments are front loaded in its opening five songs. Lead single "Pressure", which begins with a galvanizing drumline from the Detroit Party Marching Band before stacking Worden's soaring vocals against a rhythmic horn section, is unique and oddly beautiful. "Lover Killer" employs handclaps and howls for a deceptively joyous meditation on our capacity for both affection and violence, while "I Am Not the Bad Guy" evokes an industrial version of St. Vincent with its lurching swagger and pointed, imagistic lyrics (“I’m hungry, I won’t lie/ The cage, the bird, the open sky”). The bracing title track, however, is the true standout, as well as one of Worden’s finest moments. Through powerful repetition of the title’s opening phrase (“This is my…”) with distinct variations on body parts, ideas, and emotions (“fist,” “voice,” “heart,” “hate”, “sex,” etc.), the song elegantly unifies into an impassioned and inclusive rally call.
Where the beginning of This Is My Hand presents an invigorating progression of Worden’s sonic palette, the album winds down with a string of slower, ethereal oddities that blunt the concentrated pandemonium of its earlier tracks. "So Easy" and "Resonance" suffer a similar fate that much of All Things Will Unwind did in that they come and go with little to distinguish themselves, especially heard following the flourishing, self-assured bluster of the opening section. Still, despite uneven pacing, This Is My Hand works on a visceral level, conjuring Worden’s intended image of tribal, fireside collaboration through a rich diversity of texture, detail, and tone.
