David Bazan
Curse Your Branches

I had lost track of David Bazan for a few years, back when he still used the pseudonym Pedro The Lion.

After that chapter ended, Bazan resurfaced with this album, which represents a new beginning for many reasons - a new record label, his own name as a new brand, and perhaps the desire to move past difficult years marked by the struggle with alcoholism.

Musically, it starts as well as it could: Hard To Be is a track elegantly arranged, thanks to an introduction with keyboard drones and piano chords doubled by a synthesizer. And it's a pity that the rest of the album doesn’t have tracks that manage to express this thoughtful lightness: the straightforward folk of Please baby Please or the rarefied country of Lost My Shape (a confession in the style of a Will Oldham, you might say) remain memorable. The lively Bearing Witness and Bless this Mess -the latter with somewhat over-the-top keyboards and organs - communicate nothing more than Bazan's skill as a composer and multi-instrumentalist (from drums to keyboards, including guitar and bass).

It is especially the lyrics - never so autobiographical - that intrigue the listener. Bazan is an excellent lyricist, endowed with a clarity and a realist touch almost akin to Carver - so much so that one wonders what he might produce if he transitioned from music to literature.

"Curse Your Branches" is a peculiar album, which, despite lacking the quality of those works that withstand the test of time, has in its inherent humanity - with all the ambiguities and tonal shifts involved - its greatest quality. In this contrast between music and lyrics lies the essence of Bazan's artistic identity: more "writer" than "song," if I may play with words. At the same time, this is both its main limitation and its greatest asset.