2004, Jade Tree
Seattle's PEDRO THE LION (aka David Bazan) deliver Control, the band's third full-length album, which follows up 2000's Winners Never Quit. This time around, Bazan has recruited the help of SELDOM's Casey Foubert to share the burden, resulting in a collection of songs which play darker, fuller, and sometimes much heavier than any of the band's previous releases.
Control is the loose, raw tale of a hyper-modern marriage gone wrong. Wrapped inside the song more intricate and mature arrangements, fans will find Bazan's trademark lyrical wrangling pushed even further to the side of heartache, cheating, misery, and fear. On the BEDHEAD-friendly album opener "Options," Bazan sets the stage, singing: "I could never divorce you, without a good reason, and though I may never have to, it's good to have options." Later, on "Unoriginal," the biggest of the rock songs in the newly updated Pedro the Lion catalog, a nasty betrayal is revealed. Critics might finally be persuaded to stop labeling the band a quiet, folky outfit. In the end, the wife stabs the husband. What's left with is yet another of Bazan's efforts to set up expectations for peace and harmony, only to show those expectations failing wholeheartedly.
Control is the loose, raw tale of a hyper-modern marriage gone wrong. Wrapped inside the song more intricate and mature arrangements, fans will find Bazan's trademark lyrical wrangling pushed even further to the side of heartache, cheating, misery, and fear. On the BEDHEAD-friendly album opener "Options," Bazan sets the stage, singing: "I could never divorce you, without a good reason, and though I may never have to, it's good to have options." Later, on "Unoriginal," the biggest of the rock songs in the newly updated Pedro the Lion catalog, a nasty betrayal is revealed. Critics might finally be persuaded to stop labeling the band a quiet, folky outfit. In the end, the wife stabs the husband. What's left with is yet another of Bazan's efforts to set up expectations for peace and harmony, only to show those expectations failing wholeheartedly.
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Customer Reviews
1 reviews
Tom SpeakerIt is a lyrically perfect record. Conventional listeners might scoff at lines such as, ''I could never divorce you/Without a good reason,'' but it fits very well into what Bazan projects, as he studies the similarities between American marriages and corporate culture. ''Rapture'' is prurient but beneath all its triple-X-ing there is something else; we can hear the pain in David Bazan's voice as the narrator philanders. "Penetration"'s egalitarian attitude is questionable, but the immanent anger makes it very real. ''Second Best'' is Bazan's most disabling track; it will probably be the most miserable song you ever hear. Best is ''Priests and Paramedics,'' where a priest comes to wonder of life's point while giving an elegy at a funeral. The record fails to be perfect because of ''Progress,'' which doesn't match its original version and never reaches the peak it requires. Nonetheless, for your lesser, more bitter moments, ''Control'' is ideal.