Control by Pedro the Lion
Pedro the Lion’s third album, Control, is a concept album that largely follows the story of a crumbling marriage, while addressing other topics thematically such as commercialism, superficiality, and death.
Lyrics-
From what I’ve heard, Bazan’s lyrics are typically cynical and in Control, a lot of his lyrics are intentionally ironic and sarcastic. All of the songs follow a common thread- typically materialism and greed, and how both of these devour the good in people, thus ruining society (or, in the case of this album, marriages). The main plot of infidelity in a specific marriage is also addressed in all the songs, either explicitly or through the use of innuendo when on the subject of the non-sexual themes of the album. I especially admire Bazan’s ability to very concisely portray a vivid image of a broken family, while also making an amazing album instrumentally. The lyrics on this record are extremely clever and thought-provoking, and could be read off as poems rather than the lyrics to an indie record.
Instrumentation-
What I find most impressive is that a vast majority of the album’s arrangements were written and recorded by Bazan himself. Some friends of Bazan (namely, the men who were in charge of engineering and mixing) are credited as co-writers, but the bulk of the record was Bazan’s own work. There are a lot of small specifics I could praise in this album- the bassline on “Options” while Bazan sings, “I could never divorce you/…;” the use of a vocoder on “Progress” to stress the robotic, futuristic theme of the song; the juxtaposition in “Penetration” between the catchy and upbeat chorus, and the (musically) strange and distinctive verses; the list is practically endless. Maybe what I find most impressive really is how closely Bazan paid attention to some of the smallest details in these songs, and how effortlessly he subverts the expectations of the listener.
Random Thoughts:
- “Rejoice” is a really interesting way to end an album. All the previous songs on the album are pretty straightforward and have a nice, clear path to follow. They all deal directly with marriage, greed, convenience, family-life, and infidelity. But “Rejoice” is completely unique. Some Genius annotator wrote that it was a continuation of the pastor’s eulogy from “Priests and Paramedics,” and while that may be true contextually, it seems more like a detached letter from Bazan concerning the album main subject. Relevant, of course, but meta. It’s eerie and it’s jarring; it’s astonishingly convincing of how passionate and ardent Bazan was about his ideals at the time.
- I just need a moment to geek out over the band name. Possibly the reason Pedro the Lion caught my eye was because of the name. I always knew of the band (it’s one of my dad’s favorites), but as my recent interest in band names piqued, so did my interest in Pedro the Lion. Turns out, Bazan just came up with that name for a character in a children’s story he had considered writing. It’s so random, I love it.
go to @paragraphsonmusic on instagram to view some other random thoughts on images i spent too long creating on Canva
