‘Winners Never Quit’

Pedro the Lion

Everyone needs to be reminded sometimes how easily the English language and a little public relations magic can transform what was once an atrocious product into something mediocre or even great.

On the Jade Tree Records Web site, www.jadetree.com, “Winners Never Quit” is described like this:

“David Bazan, primary storyteller and frontman for Pedro the Lion, opted to expand his musical role in the band by playing all the instruments, recording and producing the album himself in his Seattle home studio.”

After listening to the 34-minute result of Bazan’s labors, one assumes that there are former members of Pedro the Lion who jumped ship due to creative differences.

They were the smart ones.

How any record label could have given Bazan a record contract is beyond all comprehension. His voice is comparable to a bored math professor who couldn’t care less if anyone stayed awake during his lectures. Just like in Math 140, one can’t help but tune out the droning within the first three minutes.

Bazan’s lyrics, which the label describes as an “honest narrative,” seem more like the product of a drunken Magnetic Poetry slam.

For every “Simple Economics,” a forthright allegory about an election night, there’s the murky “Slow and Steady Wins the Race,” in which the narrator’s brother gets lost while the two are walking in the woods, and falls into a ravine.

The narrator goes to his grandmother’s house and has tea and cake, and doesn’t really care about his brother’s whereabouts. “Slow and Steady” unexpectedly becomes hymn-like, as the narrator says, “When I get to heaven, I’ll be greeted warmly/Surrounded by the angels, as Jesus takes my hand.”

There may only be eight songs on the album, but they’re a poetry class’s worst nightmare.

The people at Jade Tree Records are to be commended for making this album worth listening to.

Perhaps when the indie rock lifestyle starts to wear thin, they can be employed as spin doctors in political campaigns.

1 Star

—Tori Rosin