- Is pop music ‘art’? By definition, popular music is music of the here and now, and carries a sense of the disposable about it. What the western musical tradition now elevates to “timeless” was once considered ephemeral – there are enough Haydn symphonies, Vivaldi concertos and Bach cantatas which were written for a moment in time, performed and then rarely, if ever, revived, to fill several concert hall programs for season after season. So, in the contemporary world, are there examples of ‘artistic’ pop music that doesn’t sound pompously self-indulgent and ultimately unlistenable that can be called ‘art’?
Shara Nova is My Brightest Diamond who has been around awhile, assaying the chamber folk-pop style, and with her previous release This Is My Hand moving into a more electronica mode. It’s been four years since then and it appears the transformation from the Tori Amos chamber works style to something approaching Annie Lennox in her heyday as a solo artist, is complete. A Million and One has several layers to it, which is only fair seeing as Nova (a new moniker, by the way, she’s exchanged her former surname Worden following her divorce) is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist. On this album, she uses an extensive range of instrumentation, with sequencers, drum machines and synths to the fore.
Given the attention to a more electronic feel, there is some tendency to a spiky, almost brutalist vibe, however that’s not meant as a detraction from the underlying thought behind the lyrics, across the album. It opens with the lead single It’s Me On The Dance Floor. This is a bit of a stomper, even with a Nile Rogers/Chic like scratch guitar line, though the lyrics don’t invite the listener to join Nova on the dancefloor; it's more like they just want you to stand there and watch her groove alone, and in semi-darkness. It’s a challenging way to begin an album.
Further in, the collection moves to some substantial, almost onion-skin like layering. A Million Pearls does give Nova a chance to open up her lungs and put some real energy into a lyric that tastes of the bitterness you when well-meaning platitudes are tossed at the broken hearted. Mother is a dark, brooding poem with a haunting, almost half-whispered reflection on mothers and motherhood. The connection to Kate Bush’s Mother Stands For Comfort from The Sensual World album is striking.
The 2012 murder of US teenage person of colour, Trayvon Martin, is examined in a first person narrative on You Wanna See My Teeth? It’s harsh at times, uncomfortable with the jagged time signature and various vocalised effects (sirens, screams, shouts). This is where pop and art meet and meet successfully, especially examining social justice and the direction of society in a seemingly directionless world. There is good stuff to be found on Sway with a vocal styling that evokes a hint of Suzanne Vega and lyrics like. “…dancin’ through these changes / We Sway in the moonlight / On the shifting centre line / All eyes up for the rainbow / In the meantime, everybody heave ho” sounding exactly like where humanity is at right now.
The album ends as it opened, with a deep driving electronic beat and a lyric about dancing and dancefloors on White Noise – but is it a covering up for something else? A critique of inherent white privilege, perhaps?
Shara Nova, as My Brightest Diamond offers ten tracks of layered, kaleidoscopic ideas that should give the discerning listener several spins of contentment, even if the lyrics prick your conscience to think outside your comfortable world view.
- Blair Martin.