You can be a poet. You can be a musician. When you try to do both, however, things just don’t fly quite level, as Pedro the Lion proves on its latest EP, The Only Reason I Feel Secure.

Lyrically, this EP weighs in heavily with highly emotionally charged lines filling the bulk of this record’s five songs. From the confessional "Criticism as Inspiration" to the neurotic "Letter From a Concerned Follower," songwriter David Bazan’s lyrics obviously make up the crux of the band’s focus. As a wordsmith, Bazan leads the pack in Pedro the Lion’s brand of introspective indie rock.

While Bazan’s lyrics will probably spend a lot of time dodging superlatives from critics, the band’s musical side proves to be its weakness. Sleepy and halting, Pedro the Lion cranks out thin indie rock with little backbone whatsoever. While slow and rolling, the band never pulls itself together enough to leave much of a dent in listeners’ minds. Attempting to match its musical side with its highly-charged, introverted lyrics, Pedro the Lion’s tunes are more like being smothered in molasses than anything else, slow, sticky and not entirely painless.

Combined with Bazan’s tendency toward long-windedness, The Only Reason proves to be too haughty a venture to ever be able to set roots. More of a spectacle involving Bazan’s poetry than a full-on band, Pedro the Lion’s material proves to be a sticky pill to choke down.