Pedro The Lion

Winners Never Quit
Jade Tree, 2000

It's a challenge to write about an artist so lyrically astute. David Bazan, the former junkie and born-again Christian behind Pedro The Lion, is more economical with words than most editors. On one song, 'Rapture', he captures the pace of hotel sex in a neat couplet without using either obvious word: “Gideon is in the drawer/ clothes scattered on the floor.”

Bazan has rarely earned praise from chic critics. By penning catchy, lo-fi pop songs about God and giving lectures on the intersections of music and belief, he became a pin-up boy for young Christians and dismissed by almost everyone else. His optimism soon wore off, though. When he began writing increasingly violent songs about hypocrisy, faith and politics, Bazan alienated many of his religious fans.

Winners Never Quit is the first and finest example of this. It's structured as a play told in three-minute acts of folk and indie-rock. The opening track is a fable of two brothers' journey "all the way to grandma's house" in which the victor, after following the narrow path, gives little regard to his lost sibling and eats both their meals. It provoked an interesting reaction on internet forums, where some fans missed Bazan's derision entirely and thought it a proper lesson on righteousness.

The rest of the album is less equivocal. Its climax is the black-humoured pairing of 'A Mind Of Her Own' and 'Never Leave A Job Half Done', describing the murder of woman and then the clean-up of her body. They're the album's two catchiest songs, set to its bloodiest and most cold-hearted scene. It's chilling how well Bazan embodies his characters. As a drunkard pleading with police, he implores “for a week I have been completely dry” in a drawl convincing enough to make seven days seem like an eternity.

After Winners Never Quit, Bazan's music became much darker, especially on its sequel Control. By the time he penned the protest song 'Backwoods Nation' about the US occupancy of Iraq (on Jade Tree sampler Location Is Everything 01), there wasn't a trace of hope left in his voice: "Calling all rednecks to put down their sluggers/ Pick up machineguns and kill camel-fuckers."