Headphones

With his Headphones project, Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan goes in like a lamb, completely replacing his lovingly strummed guitars with something even gauzier and nicer: warm, analog-sounding electronics. With help from Lion drummer Tim Walsh, Bazan creates some of his most understated work, lulling with his cottony voice and gently provoking with light social commentary on gossip (“Shit Talker”), post-9/11 religious politics (“Natural Disaster”), and domestic violence (“Hello Operator”). This is really the perpetually pleasant Bazan doing business as usual, as he makes sure his sustained, often distorted keyboards sound as guitarlike as possible. He ends up going out — you guessed it — like a Lion.