The music of David Bazan and, more specifically, his work with former band Pedro The Lion, has long been one of the culprits in my music library which causes my friends to teasingly accuse me of liking “sad bastard music.” While I like to believe that my musical tastes expand beyond such classifications, it is, however, true that some of the saddest and most depressing songs that I know come from directly from Mr. Bazan. 
His first full length album, Curse Your Branches, starts off with beautiful piano music that is reminiscent of Keane and is quickly reinforced by some of the electronic elements that he explored under the moniker of Headphones. What Bazan starts eloquently crafting in the opening track “Hard to Be” continues throughout the rest of the album: painfully honest lyrics of betrayal and pain surrounded in the warmth of well crafted upbeat music.
I think the brilliance in Curse Your Branches lies is in the fact that he’s able to make an album that is easily listenable which also happens to be full of extremely painful subject matter. This approach is deliberate and you can definitely sense his humor while wading through such dense and dreary subjects, “When We Fell” ends with a hokey flourish that is immediately followed by a soundbite saying “do you want a stop for it like that?” and the contrast between subject matter and music is striking in “Please Baby Please,” a song imagining his daughter at age 23 killing a mother of three after a night of drunk driving.
This album is notably more matured than his 2006 solo EP Fewer Moving Parts. It’s textured and smooth sounding, full of his iconic grey pop, incorporating organic elements from Pedro The Lion and the electronic touch of Headphones.
Overall, I get a strong sense of betrayal in the songs on this album, it’s filled with not-so-subtle frustrations and confrontations on faith and God. It’s complicated and uneasy to pinpoint exactly, but Bazan grew up the son of a pastor in a highly indoctrinated religious environment and spent much of his musical career singing about faith and religion. Somewhere along the way, however, he began asking the tough questions and took a long hard look at things which ultimately led to this album. In “When We Fell” he sings, “If my mother cries when I tell her what I have uncovered / Then I hope she remembers she taught me to follow my heart.”
There is also a strong sense of helplessness, in “Curse Your Branches” he sings, “All falling leaves should curse their branches/ For not letting them decide where they should fall / And not letting them refuse to fall at all.”
The chorus in “Hard To Be,” a song in which he exposes the folly in the creation myth, is particularly powerful, singing softly, “It’s hard to be / Hard to be / Hard to be a decent human being.”
Full of wonderful tracks like “In Stiches,” “Hard To Be,” and “Lost My Shape,” Curse Your Branches is a brilliant album in which David Bazan wrestles with his demons and still stays compelling without dragging itself down too far into the dark.
Tracklisting:
01. Hard To Be
02. Bless This Mess
03. Please, Baby, Please
04. Curse Your Branches
05. Harmless Sparks
06. When We Fell
07. Lost My Shape
08. Bearing Witness
09. Heavy Breath
10. In Stitches
David Bazan: website | myspace
