Swirls of crimson ignite the sky, and as you watch it burn you are able to see beautiful kaleidoscopic visions of past, present and future greatness. And as you stand below looking skyward, ashes raining down upon you, a small bearded figure approaches and tells you this is the way it has been all along -- that it is God’s will. That figure is David Bazan, who for all intents and purposes is Pedro the Lion -- its driving force and its sole auteur.

Pedro the Lion’s second full-length (and Jade Tree debut), Winners Never Quit finds Bazan reaffirming his overwhelming belief in the power of Jesus Christ and -- somewhat surprisingly -- rock n’ roll. The album comes draped in a cloak of majestic melancholy, dripping with insecurity, uncertainty, resurrection and fear. Bazan has never been the most cheery of fellows, as even brief encounters with past efforts The Only Reason I Feel Secure... and It’s Hard to Find a Friend make abundantly clear, so it should come as no surprise that Winners Never Quit retains Bazan’s dour melodicism and sense of downtrodden departure.

The heavy acoustic strum and oblique yet woeful tale of opener "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" picks up right where The Only Reason I Feel Secure left off; it's sad, slow and mournful. Soon thereafter, the rock stakes are raised as "Simple Economics" kicks in with a flurry of chiming guitars, quick tempo snare snapping and a chorus snagged directly from the title of an old Marilyn Monroe film. Then, without warning they hit you: a pair of (at least by Pedro the Lion's standards) vicious rockers. "A Mind of Her Own" slaps you in the face with a thick, buzzing dose of guitar, pulsing rhythms and a venomously bitter lyrical tirade. As if that were not enough, "Never Leave a Job Half Done’s" follows with a dirge-like guitar strut and gloriously catchy chorus of "Quitters never Win." If Pedro the Lion were ever to have a radio single, this most certainly would be it.

Inevitably the mood comes down, as the disc ends with a pair of slow tempo gems. The brooding strum and religious implications of "Bad Things to Such Good People" and the title track's elegiac organ drone, plucking guitar and exhortation that "If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again".

It's ironic that Bazan recorded Winners Never Quit by himself, for it is the most complete PtL album to date. Or perhaps Bazan's isolation helped him to focus his concentration and make the album complete. Regardless, Winners Never Quit is the masterstroke that Pedro the Lion fans and critics have been waiting for, as I’m quite sure he’ll make plenty of new converts with this one.