Posts tagged sprit

On David Bazan and cursing branches

I really like David Bazan. Somehow, I totally missed out on his band Pedro The Lion in spite of my one-time housemate, Kup, being really into them. Bazan’s solo career has been a real joy for me, though. The EP he released a few years ago still gets a lot of iPod time from me. So I was really excited when the Colonel mentioned he had a new album out.

Curse Your Branches, the new album, was a real challenge for me to listen to. Musically, it’s perfection. It features all of the things I found so charming about the EP with possibly a bit more polish. Thematically, though, the album was hard to digest. In truth, I’m still kind of digesting it.

Curse Your Branches is all about Bazan losing his faith. From the first song to the last Bazan is laying out a case for why he can no longer believe the things he once did (and that his parents and wife still do believe). As a person of faith it’s tough to listen to. Not because I object to someone being honest about that sort of thing - on the contrary, I think the album is extremely brave and I admire his willingness to live out this kind of thing in front of his fans - many of which, no doubt, are believers.

It’s tough for me to listen to because I think the things Bazan is wresting with are the things most thinking Christians wrestle with. He did battle with the quiet doubts we all face and came to a conclusion most of us don’t really like to imagine. And while people come to the conclusions that Bazan has come to every day, there’s a real underlying sadness to the picture Bazan paints of his journey - specifically as it relates to his family and his interaction with them around the topic. And I realize that’s probably me projecting how I’d feel onto him. He, for all I know, may be completely comfortable with the whole thing.

I’ve read several interview with Bazan since getting the album. Bazan obviously tells his story much better than I can in a short blog post from my side of the glass. I encourage you to give the album a listen and then track down some of his own words on the topic. It may not exactly be edifying to your faith, but I don’t think it’s wrong to listen when somebody takes the time to express their struggle. God bless David Bazan.