We seek today not to unravel the curious mystery that is The Curious Mystery, but simply to acknowledge that the mystery exists. At least, we believe it to exist. It may not. That’s what makes it curious.
The facts of the case are this: The Curious Mystery first caught our ear late last year, when we stumbled upon their excellent 2009 album, “Rotting Slowly.” Despite similarities in title, it sounded absolutely nothing like the debut album from Obituary – and more than that, it seemed nothing like a notice of death, nor did it sound like a band in decline, slowly decaying. Rather, it sounded like a band putting the pieces together – pieces of dusty old folk songs that were never written, pieces of rock bands that fell apart before they got out of the garage, pieces of the universe yearning for solace in a time when cosmic comfort is in short supply. Plus, there were song titles like “Dragon’s Crotch” – and we’re not made of stone.
Only recently did we hear that the case of The Curious Mystery had been re-opened, with the release of a new album called “We Creeling.”
Download “Up In the Morning” by The Curious Mystery
Listen: Curiosity killed the cat, Cat Stevens killed Christ (we may have that wrong) and fer’ chrissakes we have no idea how to describe the sound of “We Creeling,” except to tell you that it is utterly compelling, strange, sad and beautiful, the broken pieces mentioned above now reassembled to be stronger than before. It’s an album that recently accompanied a six-and-one-half hour drive through the central parts of our home state and into the wilds of North Carolina, each song opening a new chapter of sound, sounding equally appropriate at dawn, dusk, and under the cold cover of the night. And when we returned home, the sounds of “We Creeling” were still there, to remind us that we never really left.
And we realized that while we were gone, The Curious Mystery was here (well, Harrisonburg, Virginia, anyway), further from their home than we had been from ours. Curious, indeed.
“Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”
— Cormac McCarthy
Revolt of the Apes 
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