It’s never been a simple task to pinpoint what it is that makes David Bazan tick. This is, after all, the same person who spent his formative years in an indie-rock band professing Christianity, only for the first album under his own name to be a complete decimation of organised religion.
This time, on Bazan’s third solo outing, the curveball is thrown sonically: his indie folk inclinations are stripped away to bare necessities, substituting his usual arsenal for buzzing Casio and rattling, tinny drum machines. Both are often shrouded in gain and distortion, sending Bazan’s vocals out into the ether in the process. It should be stressed, however, that these changes do not deaden the impact of Bazan’s succinct, emotionally-driven lyricism. A line as simple and poignant as “you are worthy of love,” taken from standout Trouble with Boys, unequivocally hits like a truck. Elsewhere, Both Hands alludes to the hands being “over my eyes”, and it’s quietly devastating; and Someone Else’s Bet lets its sparse, impactful words hang in the air, gaining tension with each passing second.
He doesn’t have all the answers, but Bazan is still asking the right questions – and that’s what counts.
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
