While David Bazan's previous album was intensely personal, Strange Negotiations focuses his energies toward the external, centering on his disappointment in the current state of accelerating American and global social fragmentation.

It is the first full-length Bazan has recorded with a band — the same band with which he toured relentlessly in support of Curse Your Branches — and the joy that he, Andy Fitts (bass), and Alex Westcoat (drums) take in playing these songs is beautiful.