Pedro the Lion - Phoenix (2019)

In June 2018, with Bazan on bass, vocals, and arrangement writing, Erik Walters on guitar and backing vocals, and Sean Lane on drums, Pedro the Lion went into Studio X and Hall of Justice with producer Andy Park to create Phoenix, the first new Pedro album in 15 years. The songs themselves are the result of mining your past for who you are now. On opening track Yellow Bike, Bazan encapsulates a core ache he’s been exploring since 1998’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend with the line: My kingdom For someone to ride with. Phoenix also deals with having to be better to yourself in order to be better to others on Quietest Friend, and harkens back to Control’s Priests and Paramedics with a story about EMTs facing a gruesome scene, and storytelling as coping mechanism, on Black Canyon. It bears witness to both what was around and what was inside, with the signature kindness and forgiveness that lightens Pedro the Lion’s darkest notes.

The result is a twisting, darkly hopeful introspection into home and what it means to go back, if you ever can. It is rock and roll wrapped in tissue paper, its hard edges made barely soft. Every melody is careful, a delicate upswing buoyed by guitar lines that hold each tender feeling together like string before ripping them apart to see what’s inside. It is an ode to the place he still loves despite how alien it can appear to him now. It is the story of a life from the beginning, but not a linear one. This life is a circle, and Phoenix goes back to that first point, to show that when we are looking for home we’ll eventually run into it again, whether it’s in the desert, in a rehearsal space, or on a stage.