PRESS Categories:  April 24, 2002    Pedro The Lion's music
tends to be bludgeoningly beautiful, strikingly depressing, and
ultimately rewarding: There's no light at the end of the tunnel,
but it's worth exploring anyway. As on its outstanding
predecessor, 2000's Winners Never Quit, a loose story threads
through the band's third full-length album Control. It's the
unhappy tale of a loveless marriage, countless infidelities,
hatred both open and hidden, crass materialism, murder, and,
worst of all, a lack of hope. In the hands of a lesser
songwriter than David Bazan (Pedro The Lion's sole permanent
member), those subjects would be nearly impossible to handle
with any sort of delicacy, but by never succumbing to false
optimism, he makes them starkly believable. In the world of
Control, half-empty or half-full doesn't matter, because the
glass is stained by an unfamiliar shade of lipstick and
emblazoned with a corporate logo. Bazan's Christianity gets a
lot of press, but his worldview is far from a blindered, un