Pedro the Lion "phoenix"

The second album that has really resonated with me is #pedrothelion  new disc "phoenix". I have been an avid fan of the band for twenty years and when I heard David Bazan was putting the band back together after a 15 year hiatus I was skeptical. I havent really loved his prolific solo output but I took a chance on the moniker and it's another cd that strikes a real chord with me. It's still sad stuff, but now it's steeped in the kind of nostalgic melancholy that someone in their late forties can really sink into. Every once in a while if I'm in the areas I grew up in I will drive past old homes and haunts from when i was a kid. Most of those neighborhoods have drastically changed but I still see ghosts of my life there: I helped plant a pine tree that now towers above the two story duplex we lived in, my childhood school bus stop looks it was cryogenically preserved (I got off my motorcycle and i swear the texture of the rust on the stop sign was the same, like ancient braille). I am amazed at the distances I traveled on my bmx bike. At the time I never thought of the journeys, only the destinations. I wish i could calculate the amount of miles i peddled. The yard line markers we spray painted on our street for touch football games are long paved over but I could still see the tree that landmarked the southern endzone.i remember when an errant pass or kick would touch a draped power line we would all pause before touching the ball because we were afraid of being electrocuted by the now charged pigskin. That these songs can conjure these memories are a true testament to the writing and the universal consensus that childhood is all too brief. Damn fine cd.