Pedro The Lion - Achille's Heel

Achilles' Heel is David Bazan's fifth album under the name Pedro The Lion. On previous albums, Bazan tried to do a more conceptual, story-telling approach, mixing ideas of faith with humorless wit and cathartic sadness. With this one though, the focus is more on personal beliefs and politics, which feel less personal or relevant to a listener (or at least to me). Gone are the melancholy, disturbing stories in his songs (take the old favorite "Penetration" or "Priests & Paramedics as examples) in favor of subjects of "Bands With Managers" and the like. Now don't get me wrong; this is still a really wonderful CD. It's still very clever with some of the lyrics, the guitar parts of some of the best Bazan is written. You also have great keyboard parts that add to the atmosphere, transforming what could almost be considered an alternative-country album into one that's more of a lush, indie-pop one. Every song is pretty much drawn out to perfection. While the subject matter may be more personal to Bazan and the group, I have a longing for the old story-telling ways of Pedro The Lion. I found it really hard to make a connection with any of the songs (save the beautiful "I Do"). It drives me especially crazy to hear such a horrible line like "You were too busy steering the conversation toward the Lord to hear the voice of the spirit begging you to shut the fuck up." I'd rather just turn on some of his older stuff and take comfort in the lines "We're gonna die, we're all gonna die, it could be 20 years, it could be tonight." [www.pedrothelion.com]