“What do you think about the Bible, David?” asked a Turf Club patron on Wednesday at the Bazan show in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Bazan has been known to engage in Q&A segments of his shows, and in this particular moment his split second answer to this question was, “Well, I don’t know. The verdict is still out, but apparently it is the subtext of Western Civilization.” My fellow Bazan nerd friend and I immediately looked at each other wide-eyed as if to silently express to each other, “Aww snap!”

Bazan’s latest record Curse Your Branches out on Barsuk Records acts as a polemic between his inherited worldview and his current break with said worldview. As the son of devout Bible believing Christians—attending a strictly Conservative Pentecostal church and Bible College—Bazan chronicles the inner dialogue that led to what seems for him to be a more genuine and honest position apropos of religious faith (see opening track “Bearing Witness”). Bazan makes it clear in his prose style of songwriting that he has not denounced or rejected his upbringing as sheer falsehood, but simply, as he put it in his show, “the verdict is still out.” For David, “I don’t know” is the most legitimate answer as he writes in the record’s title track “Why are some hell bent on there being an answer, while some are quite content to answer “I don’t know?”” With the blend of truthful and autobiographical lyrics, a graspable prose-style lyrical content, and easily followed melodies, Bazan writes hymns for the unsure.

“Heresy!” you say? Let us ask just what historically has gone into the construction of a hymn. For Luther, the inaugurator of the Reformation and granddaddy of all that is Protestantism, hymn writing consisted of lyrically putting his personal religious convictions to culturally familiar pub songs. So it seems that Bazan has struck a nerve in putting beautiful culturally familiar melodies to his religious convictions lyrics. His convictions just seem a bit more provocatively disconcerting for your average American Christian. Whatever the case may be, it seems like a similar concoction.

Curse Your Branches uses a classic rock n’ roll aesthetic to drive this lyrical content. Guitar driven, synth/organ/piano riffing, and classic rock n’ roll song structures are the foundation to Bazan’s slap-back style echoed vocal (giving it a bit of a vintage-country flavor). These elements, with sporadic progressive segments, create a listenable record for all generations. Truly, the skinny-jeaned hipster of today as well as the aging rock n’ roll child of yesteryear can enjoy Curse Your Branches. For the classic rocker Bazan throws in
a harmony infused pop-rock driven version of Dylan’s “The Man In Me,” which, if you ask me, is rather daring (I mean seriously listen to Dylan’s original. The Band. And the female backups? Tough to top). Nevertheless, Bazan’s melody adjustment to the lead vocal catches my attention.

This is a record to be studied; a record sure to—as Peter Gabriel wrote—make you go “digging in the dirt.”