PEDRO THE LION
Achilles Heel (Jade Tree)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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I used to work in an office with a guy obsessed with Pedro the Lion. He'd listen to their albums over and over on his headphones then write particularly poignant lyrics on a sticky note and put them in my cubicle. Once I'd occupied that cubicle a month, I'd culled an archive of Pedro lyrics that he'd proudly waltz by and give a reading of.

David Bazan's lyrics seem to be the backbone of Pedro the Lion's appeal, not necessarily evidenced by my former workmate's obsession, but by examination of any of the band's records. On Achilles Heel, Pedro's fifth album, the sound isn't nearly so heavy handed and deliberate as it was on the prior two and yet comes off as accomplished. It is like a Neil Young record: conceptual, approached with a simplified hand and, in advance of any proof, a burgeoning classic.

Where darkness and doom defined Bazan and PTL outright on 2002's Control, the clouds seem to have lifted here, if only slightly. Topically, the sexual frustration remains similar and as "Arizona" tells the love lost to distance story and "Transcontinental" anatomizes mourning in a violent, threatening way, one is reminded that in artistic progression, one should remain in touch with its precedent.

If Bazan and his band sense doom on the air, they are among the finest around at defining it.

© 2004 - Erick Mertz