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- Summary: This is the debut solo album for the former Pedro The Lion/Headphones singer-songwriter.
- Record Label: Barsuk
- Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 18
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Mixed: 1 out of 18
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Negative: 1 out of 18
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His salvation is humanistic empathy, spiritual complexity, and melodies more unfailing than back when the Holy Ghost was inspiring into his ear.
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Bazan has built his career on the merit of his honesty, and Curse Your Branches finds him exerting that idea more forcefully than ever before, creating a record that beautifully, paradoxically, and soulfully explores the beauty and strife of admitting "I don't know."
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Despite its undercurrent of outrage, Branches--which expands Pedro's folksy sound with creamy keyboards, processed drum beats and the occasional spritz of glam-rock guitar.
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Q MagazineThe quiet, melodic Curse Your Branches - think American Music Club with superior melodies - is an open-veined, self-lacerating look at his break-up with God ("You expect me to believe that all this misbehaving grew from one enchanted tree?" he asks on the brutal Hard To Be), his subsequent alcohol issues ("All this lethal drinking is to forget about you") and his estrangement from his young daughter. [Dec 2009, p. 111]
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Alternative PressOn paper this may sound bleak--and in many ways, Curse Your Branches is--but ultimately there's a level of solcae in Bazan's sadness that's remarkably reassuring and, stranger yet, satisfying. [Sep 2009, p.106]
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His identity crisis, drinking binges and family tensions are chronicled in chunky, rootsy rockers that can be stately or foot-stomping--and can, perhaps, offer some resolution.
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Bazan has, it's reported, fallen out with God and off the wagon, and those tumbles get painful airtime on his solid first solo LP, Curse Your Branches.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 5
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Mixed: 2 out of 5
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Negative: 0 out of 5
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ChetESep 15, 2009
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AdamMSep 2, 2009Great new offering from Bazan. Thoughtful lyrics and a solid sound.
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JetSep 4, 2009
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MarkRNov 11, 2009Boring! I don't care how great the lyrics are if the music puts me to sleep.
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MarkRNov 11, 2009Boring! I don't care how great the lyrics are if the music puts me to sleep.
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