CLIMBER, THE RO SHAM BOS, VIPER CREEK CLUB
(Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th) Over the course of three albums Climber have filed down their Anglophile tendencies to create a concise pop sound that is more telling of domestic shores. Problem is, with The Mystic, it doesn't always work. "The Simians Speak" stumbles out of the block, a directionless soul-funk hybrid that can't possibly end soon enough. But perhaps it's a matter of song sequencing, since The Mystic rebounds nicely from there. The resonating bass line from "Stepping into New Rooms" lingers long after the track winds down, and the spacious ballad "The Risk of the Middle Way" is nicely anchored by the swelling voice of frontman Michael Nelson. Ironically it's closing number "Advice," with its muddled electronic beats, that is the album's finest song and the exact moment where you'll swear you were listening to The Mystic in the wrong order. (You weren't.) EAC
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