Critical consensus inherently favors some artists and albums over others. It’s tempting to think of the phenomenon of consensus as an indication of hive mind thought, but the prominence of some releases over others is inevitable and probably unavoidable. Some interesting bands get overlooked, drowned out by the deafening buzz surrounding more successful acts. Wye Oak, for example, received a fair amount of press before the release of their latest album, Civilian, but other groups mining the same atmospheric and softly psychedelic territory have received decidedly less acclaim and attention.
The Curious Mystery are one such example, and though they’ve yet to find their niche, We Creeling, their sophomore record, proves them yet again deserving of serious recognition. Compared to Rotting Slowly, their Calvin Johnson-produced debut, We Creeling is more methodical, with its psych rock textures brought to the foreground of their sound. It’s also slower than Rotting Slowly, lacking any songs as instantly gratifying as “Black Sand.” But despite being somewhat lacking in immediacy, it offers a more consistent, immersive experience. The dusty sweep that opens “Hear the Break” is a fair distillation of the record’s tone: feverish and shimmering, dream-like, highly evocative but intriguingly indistinct.
The Curious Mystery succeed at synthesizing disparate influences, from the symphonic prog of The Moody Blues to the desert blues of North Africa. They do it so well, in fact, that the middle of We Creeling blurs together as woozily and pleasantly as a summer-afternoon buzz — but it can also feel ephemeral, inconsequential. The narcotic mood is broken only by the free-jazzy skronk of “Taste It.” Otherwise, the languid pace holds steady, never breaking past a trotting or galloped tempo. This unhurried quality gives We Creeling a sleepy — though never snoozy — feel, but it also prevents the songs from living up to The Curious Mystery’s potential. That vocal duties are shared by breathy autoharpist Shana Cleveland and multi-instrumentalist Nicolas Gonzales helps to break up the monotony, but both rely on dour affectlessness, which doesn’t quite mitigate the album’s lack of variety.
We Creeling is a modest album, one seemingly made to be overlooked. No matter how intoxicating The Curious Mystery can be, the hazy spell they cast still fades a little too quickly from memory. The album might be an improvement over their debut, but it still leaves The Curious Mystery a fair amount of room for growth and plenty of time for them to attract the attention they deserve.
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