It took a while, but David Bazan has finally gotten around to releasing his first true solo LP. Curse Your Branches, unlike his previous solo release Fewer Moving Parts, has a sound that is distinctly separate from his past projects.
While Bazan is more than solid with just his acoustic guitar in tow, it’s only when his songs are fully fleshed, as is the case on this album, that he achieves his artistic peak. The overall sound of the record feels simple and stripped down without actually being so. There’s quite a lot going on, but there is never a sense of clutter or weightiness. The brightness and lightness somehow better punctuate the singer’s moments of sorrow.
Curse Your Branches starts off with it’s best foot forward on “Hard To Be.” The way instrumental mix interacts is spot on. The song features Bazan working in what his lyrical wheelhouse examining/questioning Christianity. It specifically deals with the idea of why people are so bad, skillfully alluding to the story of Adam and Eve:
“Wait just a minute you expect me to believe
That all this misbehaving grew from one enchanted tree?
And helpless to fight it we should all be satisfied
With this magical explanation for why the living die?”
The superb religiously-themed lyrics continue on songs like “In Stitches,” where he confronts God’s defensiveness in the Book of Job, and “Harmless Sparks,” which among other things questions the idea of why celibacy is needed among men of the cloth. The imagery displayed on the chorus of the track “Curse Your Branches” is also phenomenal, addressing free will/fate:
“All the 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 instrumental work on Curse Your Branches is the most consistent he’s put out (not quite as good on a whole as Pedro the Lion’s Control, but what’s wrong with second best?). “Bless This Mess” centers around a great moving bass line and and a constant cacophony of claps. “Lost My Shape” has a county feel with heavily reverbed guitar and slide accents.
If Curse Your Branches needed to be described in a single adjective it would probably be along the lines of “solid,” “consistent,” or “balanced.” While it may not be flashy, the album is certainly Bazan’s best work since 2002′s Control. It holds the listener with with a soft hand, but that gentle grip is comforting. The comfort of Curse Your Branches is what will keep you coming back for more.
Review Score: 7.6
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