Tell someone, anyone, your favorite musician or, hell, your least favorite (so it's easier to hate), to write an album on topics like the the fall of man, original sin, damnation, hell, and predestination, with occasional references to God, and, go ahead, throw in that he/she/they should include 'curse' in the title, and you might get a few curses thrown your way. Not exactly the subject matter for a highly listenable album, unless the musician you give this challenge to is David Bazan (or maybe Sufjan Stevens). If you know anything about Bazan (formerly Pedro the Lion), you shouldn't be surprised. This is the same man who managed (as Pedro the Lion) to make an album almost exclusively about cheating and loss into an album that all the kids were talking about, listening to, and even singing along to (Control). An affair to replay. Bazan, again, takes the plight of man and makes it manageable, in addition to the source of some damn good songs, without sounding like the kid front-and-center of religious studies 101 or the hobo on the corner screaming, 'why, God, why?'.
Drawing you into the cage that is his voice - rough on the edges, a little dark, but hollow enough to hide inside, Bazan makes you feel safe, and for a moment a little warm. Simple drum beats, rhythmic guitar strums, and reassuring piano cause you to release that sigh you've been holding in, relax your shoulders, and let a couple guards down. You start to feel pretty damn good when the claps drop. "Please, Baby, Please" might even find you singing along. But don't get too comfortable, this isn't the album to listen to when you want to feel good about yourself, especially if you're a shitty person, and everyone's a shitty person, sometimes - drunks, smokers, priests, liars, even Bazans, though it's hard to believe. So it's okay, he understands, he knows "it's hard to be/hard to be/a decent human being," although, for him it's pretty easy to be a more than decent musician.
Listen to this album and forget everything I said, go ahead, bop your head.
David Bazan - Curse Your Branches
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Enough of David Bazan as musician, here's David Bazan as art, by Kyle. Striking resemblance, don't you think? (Of Bazan, not Kyle).
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