Tear It Down

My Brightest Diamond | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 6, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Asthmatic Kitty
• ASIN: B000MGB0CY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,424 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden has decided to set loose her bobby pins and let her hair fly on the ambient dance floor. Her latest semi-collaboration with 13 different remixers, entitled "Tear It Down", reworks songs from the highly acclaimed album, "Bring Me The Workhorse" featuring tracks by Alias, Lusine, Murcof, Stakka and Gold Chains. Oh, it's international too! With diplomatic representatives from Belgium, France, Mexico, The UK and America (East and West Coasts baby!), the remixes range from drum-n-bass, to glitchy ambient, minimalism, and get-your-booty-on-the-dance-floor club music. "Tear It Down" stands on it's own horsie legs. In comparison to Shara's control in the songs of "Bring Me The Workhorse", these electronic horsetrainers loosen up the forms and smooth over some of the rougher emotional outbursts. Many of the remixers adhere to the original song forms, snazzing them up or stripping them down, and there are also examples of djs excerpting the tracks to create something entirely new and not song form related, focusing on one element and elaborating, rather than being bound to the storytelling. Shara says, "The variety of their approaches made this project exhiliratingly unpredictable!" "Worden is a remarkable chanteuse...Combining brainy indie-pop with touches of art-rock and classical music, Worden's work radiates brilliance to match her considerable ambition." - NPR

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a remix album should sound like!, March 6, 2007

By 

Cale E. Reneau "audiooverflow.com" (Conroe, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tear It Down (Audio CD)

Ahh, the remix album. Clearly it's one of the most overdone, yet disappointing classifications an album can receive. Still, dozens of these albums are released every year, most of which serve as throwaway club bangers as opposed to actual music. Even fewer show respect for the artist's original work, opting rather to make the song something that is entirely their own, and entirely unlistenable in the process. So you can image my surprise when it was first revealed that My Brightest Diamond's stellar 2006 debut "Bring Me the Workhorse" was being reworked and remixed as 2007's "Tear It Down." You can also imagine my skepticism. However, the final result is far from what I'd expected.

"Tear It Down" is a really good remix album. The reason for this is simple. The artists who have participated in this project respected Shara Worden's original work. These songs are far different from what Worden originally presented to us several months ago, but the overall feel and themes of the album are not torn apart by someone else's careless remixing. Take, for example, Lusine's remix of "Workhorse." In many ways, it is very similar to the original version of the song. It feels like the same song, and keeps much of the original instrumentation. What it adds are really subtle drums, vocal effects, and minimal instrumentation. It really is a fantastic reinvention of what was already an awesome song.

Much less subtle is the Stakka remix of "Disappear," which features both commanding percussion and gentle strings. When the music drops out and Shara is left singing "I don't think we're meant to stay here" a capella in her upper registry, it is a beauty that we never got to experience in the song's original version. "Dragonfly" features an almost Dntel-ish feel, but remains just as haunting as ever, as is the now more-terrifying "Magic Rabbit." Both songs are prime examples of what a remix should be.

In actuality, most of the album follows this same idea. Much care and respect is given to the original music, and the experience is greater because of it. Even some of "Bring Me the Workhorse's" less appealing songs ("We Were Sparkling" or "The Good and the Bad Guy") have new life breathed into them here. With the exception of the two remixes of "Freak Out," both of which are club remixes, there's not a song on "Tear It Down" that would be incredibly difficult for any fan of My Brightest Diamond to find enjoyment in. Anyone who found "Bring Me the Workhorse" great, but short on lasting appeal should definitely look into purchasing this terrific reinvention of Shara Worden's 2006 masterpiece. If you're just not sure, however, I highly recommend you going over to Astmatic Kitty's website and streaming the album before you purchase it. [...]

Recommended for fans of My Brightest Diamond and anyone who wants to hear what a remix album should sound like!

Key Tracks:
1. "Workhorse (Lusine)"
2. "Disappear (Stakka)"
3. "Dragonfly (Murcof)"
4. "Magic Rabbit (Alfred Brown)"
5. "We Were Sparkling (Haruki)"

7 out of 10 Stars

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what you think, March 11, 2007

By 

Brandon Marlow "red medicine" (United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tear It Down (Audio CD)

If you liked Bring Me the Workhorse, you may have been like me and got really exited about this remix album. The album is nothing like Shara Worden's debut. It just takes samples of her amazing voice from BMTW and works them into dance music. This disc is very disappointing. Some of the remixes really miss the point of the original song. If you are really into house or subterranean, you may find this album great, but one of the best parts of the first go through was that Shara wrote all of the music herself. Buy at your own risk.

4.0 out of 5 stars Torn down?, March 11, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tear It Down (Audio CD)

My Brightest Diamond is an unlikely enough band -- an opera singer singing stripped-down indiepop?

So it was even more worrisome to hear of an impending remix album, giving an electronic edge to those same songs. Let's be honest here -- most remixes are just techno beats laid over the original song, with maybe some shouted remarks by a rapper. "Tear It Down" is not such a remix album, thank God.

It starts off with the Alias remix of "Golden Star," a soaring little song that is given shimmering, epic proportions by a spray of delicate beats. The better remixes are the ones that stick in that vein -- the fragile "Workhorse (Lusine)," bittersweetly clattery "Disappear (Stakka)," twinkling "Good and the Bad Guy (Siamese Sisters)," the hesitant music-box chimes of "We Were Sparkling (Haruki)," and the gothic distortion of Blair Sinta's "Workhorse" remix.

Some, like David Keith's somnolent remix of "Something of An End," don't even appear to have been changed that much, just sort of embellished around the edges. And in none of these songs is there the too-common problem of just laying dancy techno over the original song.

But there are a few that are flops. The Gray Kid's "Dragonfly"has jagged, angular beats that clash with the song, and DJ Kenny's "Freak Out" is a weird, theatrical trip full of distorted whispers and squeals, while the same song done in "Gold Chains Panique Mix" is a droning, sleep-inducing reworking that just doesn't work.

Fortunately, the duds are far outnumbered by the really good remixes. Usually the better ones are quieter-sounding or more delicate, and the people doing them try to enhance whatever was beautiful and striking about the original songs, not drown them in samples and synth.

Sure, there's plenty of beats, chiming and extra melodies laid over the original. But the original sound is preserved and enhanced, whether it's a solemn mournful sound, a chilly sparkle, a shimmering ballad, or a music-box melody. And it's an even better when Shara Worden's rich voice rises over the beats, glitches and odd little notes.

It would have been ideal if the clubbier songs had been pruned out, but "Tear It Down" is still an excellent collection of remixes. Here's hoping Worden works with a few of these for her next album.