My Brightest Diamond - A Million and One

Pitchfork 70

In pursuit of sweaty deliverance, the acrobatic singer takes worries about police brutality, relationship woes, and embracing differences to the dance floor.

The Guardian 60

(Rhyme & Reason Records)

The turn towards electronic music that Shara Nova took on the 2014 album This Is My Hand continues on her fifth full-length album as My Brightest Diamond. It is not really an album for the clubs, though, despite the title of the opening track, That’s Me on the Dance Floor. (The presence of chicken-scratch guitar does not a Chic record make.) Instead, Nova once again offers art pop that is best when it’s less concerned with the art than the pop. For instance, on the gorgeously sad Another Chance, the claimed influence of Anita Baker comes through in a ballad that combines regret and hope.

But there’s surely a reason why Nova has worked with so many fantastic artists – Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Sufjan Stevens and the Decemberists among them – without exactly establishing herself at their level.