Capping off a fruitful 12-year long solo career, David Bazan resurrects both the moniker and mindset of his profoundly influential indie rock outfit, Pedro The Lion. The band’s new album and Polyvinyl debut, Phoenix, marks a return to form as the follow up to their 2004 opus, Achilles Heel. Phoenix maps out the emotional intricacies of growing up in Arizona with the songs themselves a darkly hopeful introspection into home and what it means to go back, if you ever can. Since their formation in 2001, mewithoutYou have become a standard-bearer for their genre. Across six full-length albums and a handful of EPs, the Philadelphia band— alternately labeled experimental punk, post-hardcore, indie rock, etc.—have long put a premium on progression, never anchoring themselves to a single sound and instead gracefully wandering across stylistic lines. It’s that same spirit that informed the band’s upcoming seventh album [Untitled], their second for Run For Cover Records, as well as its accompanying EP [untitled].
