| Curse Your Branches |  | Artist: David Bazan
Label: Barsuk Records
Category: Digital Music Album
Buy New: $7.99
as of 7/30/2010 04:02 CDT details
In Stock
Seller: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 16,680
Genre: rock-music
Media: MP3 Download
Running Time: 2321 Minutes
Release Date: September 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
Curse Your Branches is a must hear! March 15, 2010
Mehgan D. Kosa (Hudson, NY)
This is the best album I've bought in probably 4 years and I've been listening to it on repeat since it came in the mail. David Bazan was the genius behind Pedro the Lion, which was a Christian rock band. This album is about him dealing with alcoholism and his journey away from religion. It is spellbinding. This album is simple and meaningful in the best possible way.
A sample of the lyrics from "Hard To Be":
"You've heard the story you know how it goes
Once upon a garden we were lovers with no clothes
Fresh from the soil we were beautiful and true
In control of our emotions to till we ate the poison fruit...
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 the magical explanation for why the living die
And why it's hard to be... a decent human being."
Beautiful from beginning to end.
Bazan is the greatest singer/songwriter ever. March 9, 2010
Erik Kulick (South Grafton, MA)
This is a beautiful, heartfelt album that explores David Bazan's inner struggles with God and life in general. Packed full of catchy indie rock tunes to complement his lyrical genius, Curse Your Branches (or any of Bazan's other records) is a must buy for any fan of great music and lyrics.
simply amazing January 24, 2010
lee dk 08 (collinsville, il)
I've been a David Bazan fan for years now and he continues to get better. This album has some new rockin feels combined with that old Bazan awesomeness. I can't put this album down it's so good. He continues to be honest about his struggles, thoughts, and beliefs while continuing to be original. Please baby, please baby, please would have to be my favorite. One of the best albums of the past few years. You have to listen to this album!
 niaga nrob December 9, 2009
Plopper (up here)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of David Bazan's music for over a decade now, and it's good to see he is still going strong with this gloom and doom stuff he's so good at. Musically this disc does not delve into any unfamiliar territory whatsoever, it's the same kind of simple but effective pop hooks you'd expect from him, and it still works for the most part. This can be largely attributed to David's ultra-recognizable voice, thick and sad and like no other; I always thought that in the unlikely event that Disney makes an animated movie about a suicidal bloodhound, they should get David to do its voice.
At first listen, the lyrics seem pretty familiar too: faith and doubt and booze, etc. But apparently this is his first fully autobiographical endeavor, which takes place during and after some sort of emotionally turbulent spiritual awakening...his "breakup with God" is one way it's been described. As a person with no religious affiliation and also a fan of Pedro the Lion's "Christian" music, I was very interested in giving repeat listenings to Curse Your Branches in a nerdy attempt to grasp some of the reasons a person would make such a significant shift 35 years into his life. This turned out to be somewhat disappointing, if only because I consider Bazan to be one of the most thought-provoking lyricists in existence, and was perhaps expecting too much this time around.
In fact, some of the lyrics are downright silly. David takes easy potshots at pedophile priests (who have nothing to do with the song), blames God for "bullying" him into believing in Hell, and points out obvious inconsistencies between the word of the Bible and what we know to be reality. Take the opening track, "Hard to Be," in which David ponders the improbability that the story of the Garden of Eden happened word for word. He scoffs at the logic behind an "enchanted tree" and the story's "magical explanation" for original sin, and he sings as if he believes he's breaking new ground, exposing some deep conspiracy. This strikes me as odd since his lyrics have always been more philosophical than blindly theological anyway. Anyone with half a brain raised with Christian indoctrination will tell you that questions concerning the literality of biblical stories start around the age of say, five. So I have always assumed that people who retain their faith as adults (the reasonable ones, not the crazies) have come to terms with the fact that stories from the Bible are not meant to be taken as factual documents, but as moral guidelines, the potency of which is irrelevant in relation to whether or not they actually occurred. So why did it take David an extra three decades to start asking these questions? I have a theory about this.
Nothing against AA, but it's well established that their religious agenda is thinly, if at all, disguised. Many "born agains" put their faith in a Christian deity as a symbol of shedding their past lives as addicts of some sort. A "born again" is convinced that lack of spirituality has been a major cause of his or her chronic dependency. David follows this exact pattern, but his lifelong affiliation with Christianity deems that he must be "born again" in reverse. His newfound agnosticism is symbolic of his freedom from the shackles of alcoholism, and for him, faith was a big part of the problem.
He makes a few brief mentions of his daughter on this disc. His fears and concerns of the quality of his parenting come off as genuine, so these brief moments stand out, and the true motivation for the songs becomes clear to the listener. It should be noted that he does not seem to be exploiting her existence for the sake of his music, such as (for lack of a better example) Eminem likes to do.
Curse Your Branches misses the mark at times, and is rarely as powerful or as humorous as anything on Achilles' Heel or Control, but all in all it's pretty hard not to like it. "Lost My Shape" is by far the best track.
Curse Your Branches MP3 review November 11, 2009
Stephanie Eaton (Oronoco, MN)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was skeptical when I first saw all of the 5 star reviews.
Initially, "Hard To Be" pulled me in.
The remainder of the songs grew on me after repeated listenings.
The question of faith was a powerful backdrop during my 7 year old's surgeries.
This album literally got me through these uncertain times.
Great music truly is The Doctor.
Thank You, David Bazan.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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