In poking around the web, reading old reviews, it appears there was a significant tide of backlash against David Bazan’s previous project Pedro the Lion towards the latter end of its life.  It started right around the time the concept album Control was released and continued heavily through the release of their last official album Achilles Heel.  This trend is interesting to me, mostly because first of all I’m not sure I understand it and also because it seems to be continuing today even up to Bazan’s last official release, the Fewer Moving Parts EP in 2006.

The criticism usually concerns the heavy handedness of Bazan’s lyrics and his deeper, more monotone vocal delivery first featured around the Winners Never Quit album.  Personally, I find the dark stories of lust and murder in Control and Winners Never Quit to be a highly entertaining strength- I’ve listened to both of those albums hundreds of times over.  As for Achilles Heel, sure, I can understand the overall rejection more with that album- ‘it isn’t fun to listen to’- but strangely enough it is my favorite Pedro album.  It reminds me a lot of John Vanderslice’s Emerald City in that all the extra fluff has been stripped and what is left is a solid, non-flashy record that has no stand out tracks or singles, but as a whole is probably the best of each musician’s career.  I only need to  hear the very first seconds of ‘Arizona’, ‘Discretion’ or especially ‘Start Without Me’ (yes, especially that one) and I get chills.

I’m going to skip Bazan’s all-synth side project Headphones because the coverage on that album was so minimal I would have to reach even further than I already am here.

So this takes us to the solo artist’s most recent record, the Fewer Moving Parts EP.  Here is what the prestigious Pitchfork had to say:

The thing is, Bazan’s once-sharp songwriting has dulled considerably since 1998′s understated but utterly endearing It’s Hard to Find a Friend. Whether humorously skewering standards of beauty (“winter legs give me heart attacks”) or nakedly hanging his bleeding heart out to dry on songs that addressed his Christian faith, Bazan’s early work never buckled under the weight of its self-importance. It was just spare indie rock unafraid to admit to some serious heartache. But, after a few regrettable dalliances into concept records like Winners Never Quit and Control, Bazan eschewed any semblance of subtlety for clobbering listeners with a message. And in that department, Fewer Moving Parts leaves you pretty battered.

So he is too self-important?  He needs to be more unassumingly clever?  Or maybe it’s that only unknown artists waiting to be discovered can get away with trying anything conceptual or well thought out?

The reviewer then goes on to pick apart Bazan’s lyrics on the EP by posting them plainly at face value, stripped off all context, not acknowledging the added impact of their slow twisting  revelation (basically what makes Bazan’s story telling so effective).  That tactic makes me laugh because stripped of all context and their original medium any artist’s lyrics will appear to be “cloying” and in “avoid-at-all-costs territory”.

The truth (or shall I say my truth) is somewhere in the middle.  Fewer Moving Parts is nowhere near the top of Bazan’s best work, however, it contains two great tracks that rank near the very top of the aforementioned list.  Those tracks are ‘Fewer Broken Pieces’, the autobiographical tale of going solo and letting his friends down in the process, and the immoral ‘Cold Beer and Cigarettes’.  What disappoints me about this two year old EP is its production.  Too many of the songs still sound like demos and I have to agree with Pitchfork when they point out the odd choice to include acoustic versions of each track on the same disc.  They sound so alike that either the acoustic songs are very finished or the finished songs are very raw- and I have to side with the latter.   It also adds to the already clumsy feel of it all.

The other thing that bugs me about the EP is that it’s been two years and we haven’t gotten the full length yet!  Sure, maybe I am unecessarily blaming the poor EP for something beyond its control but, hey, I want more music.  The good news is that Bazan is expected to release his first solo full length sometime in 2009 (much better news than The National announcing their follow up to Boxer is set for 2010).

David Bazan – Cold Beer and Cigarettes

(buy album)