falling leaves should curse their branches
i originally started writing up this post as a kind of uninspired-failed-attempt at a blog. nothing had really been catching my interest lately, and i was just gonna post some music i’d been listening to.
so as i was listening a little more to an album i was gonna recommend…it hit me.
Inspiration.
sometimes we think we’ve analyzed a subject so much that we know every angle. everything that’s been handed to us, and the rest that we’ve discovered for ourselves…after a while, we settle and tend to be complacent with how things seem.
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
David Bazan, formerly of Pedro the Lion and the Headphones, opens his newest endeavor “Curse Your Branches” with this familiar tale of Adam & Eve. But just as Adam & Eve were skeptical of God’s warning to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge, Bazan is skeptical of the whole story;
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
no matter how straight of line we walk, Bazan cynically declares “it’s hard to be a decent human being.” not because of anything we may have done in our lifetime, but because our nature has destined us to be.
it seems fitting that “Hard to Be” be the first song on the album, because the story of Adam & Eve found in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells us that from the beginning of our lives we are bound to sin. just as the Bible declares mans fate, Bazan quickly kicks off his album with a rebuttal.
there’s no denying that we make mistakes, infact Bazan has made a career out of molding man’s sins and flaws into a catchy melody and making it rhyme. but i think Bazan has finally concluded that maybe it’s not all man’s fault. “When We Fell” is one of Bazan’s most clear-cut songs…ever, period. If you thought his previous narratives about lying politicians and adulterating spouses seemed raw, how about Bazan putting his own life under the microscope.
with the threat of hell hanging over my head like a halo
i was made to believe in a couple of beautiful truths
that eventually had the effect of completely unraveling
the powerful curse put on me by you
now God’s turn on the glass slide;
when you set the table
and when you chose the scale
did you write a riddle
that you knew they would fail
did you make them tremble
so they would tell the tale
did you push us when we fell
if my mother cries when i tell her what i have discovered
then i hope she remembers she taught me to follow my heart
and if you bully her like you’ve done me with fear of damnation
then i hope she can see you for what you are
what am i afraid of
whom did i betray
in what medieval kingdom does justice work this way
if you knew what would happen and made us just the same
then you , my lord, can take the blame
many have been describing David Bazan’s latest works as his “denouncement” with God. but it’s still unfit to call any “denouncement” with any normal relation when you can still write an albums worth of songs about the other person in the relationship.
i think Bazan just has plenty of issues and questions for the big guy upstairs, along with plenty for his followers down here walking among us, claiming they have all the answers. i think to Bazan, these followers are blind, they are content with every word force fed to them.
those who question and don’t trust a belief system laid out in front of them, they are the ones seen as faithless. i guess by definition they are. loyalty. trust. firm belief in something for which there is no proof. faith. but does that make US less than decent human beings? regardless of with or without faith, it’s hard to be.
“Hard to Be”
“Curse the Branches”
“When We Fell”
Baltimore House Show ~ Sept, 4th 2009
“Pleae Baby Please”
