Customer Reviews

Progress

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pedro the Lion is solid and strong with their 3rd EP release, "Progress". The mood is mellow and rich as David Bazan delivers his sermon on life, living, and the troubles we have to learn to deal with. Surprisingly darker than their previous releases, the first track "june 18, 1976" is a story of a young unwed girl who gives her child away to say good-bye with a trajic suicide. The culimination and over-empowering emotion in the song is worth the EP price alone. The song finishes off with a haunting reverb of the lyrics "each one in awe/for they'd never seen a girl/so sad and beautiful", which describes the song perfectly. The next song, "april 6, 2039", is a melancholic look at a life who's been worn out and dying, far stuck inside "progress'" gearwork. The feel and mood to the song is constant and for the most part unchanging, but this perhaps adds to the songs emphasis on dying within the system of life. To finish the EP up, they include "of up and coming monarchs" from "It's Hard to Find a Friend" and "letter from a concerned follower" off of the 2nd EP, "The Only Reason I Feel Secure"; both songs equally deserving of an encore, though I would have appreciated some more b-sides. If anything this EP shows you the change to a darker and more melancholic mood for Pedro, which I feel is their strong point. If you like this release, definitely go buy their first release and EP, "whole", which offers an extraordinary look into the progression of a person from life's pain to extreme bliss. "Whole" would definitely still have to be my favorite release, but this EP comes in at a close second.

the first song on this album is quite possibly the most depressing song that i have ever heard in my life, but it still provides something more than just pain, as it leaves you with some warmth. david once again shows us that he can feel anyone's pain and is willing to share it with all of us. the ep shouls be purchased, if only for this one song. the second song is also more of a throw-back to whole and the only reason i feel secure, their first two releases. if you found their last release a bit on the poppy side, then this should give you more of a picture of what pedro the lion can churn out, even if it does fail to provide more than two new tracks. in short, if you like the slower side of pedro the lion, then this album is worth bying, but if you enjoyed winners never quit more than any of the others, then this may not be a wise purchase.

"June 18, 1976" struck me as one of the most sad and beautiful songs I have ever heard, so I bought this disc. (And I have cred in this arena, as a fan of goth *and* country, ha ha!)

He sings with a lazy muffle, as if he's too weary to sing one more song ever again. However, the music is dynamic despite being simple, and far from the boring guitar strummings of other alt. folk style musicians.
I don't have any other Pedro stuff, yet, but look forward to hearing more.

On their two full length CDs and handful of E.P.s, Pedro the Lion have fully explored life through the prism of a flexible, humanistic Christianity. Singer-guitarist-songwriter David Bazan has never let dogma contaminate his artistic empathy; there's nothing haranguing about his love of Jesus. Nothing has changed with Progress. The songs are solid. Yet on the heels of Winners Never Quit earlier this year, these four tunes showcase a melancholy that borders monotony. Bazan's voice, pleasant as it is, has a ponderous ache. He needs lighter settings than those he's given himself here, or more uptempo tracks to vary the pace.