David Bazan

Like St. Augustine with an acoustic guitar and a better sense of humor, David Bazan has spent most of his career—in and out of Pedro The Lion—confessing his various crises of faith. Those doubts come to an urgent head on his 2009 solo debut, Curse Your Branches, which finds the melancholy singer taking his agnosticism in purposeful, if mournful stride, admitting he’s “clung to miracles I have not seen” and deciding that hell is right here on Earth—specifically his battles with the bottle, which he addresses with the same unsparing yet inspirational reproach. This year’s Strange Negotiations finds him continuing to mix sadness and hope in his inimitable style.

Updated 10/26/2011