“The coolest thing about Climber is that there’s nothing cool about us anymore,” says Climber frontman Michael Nelson. The band’s long-awaited third release, The Mystic (2010), is a curtain pulled back revealing four musicians that simply aren’t afraid to be themselves anymore. It’s taken a few years, but these days Climber is truly playing music like no one’s watching. The result is a baker’s dozen songs that defy stereotypes. From the soulful, space-pop of “The Simians Speak,” which kicks off the album, you’re left wondering: Is this a concept album? A dance album for Mensans? Other tracks, like “Stepping Into New Rooms” and “I Have Seen Everything,” jump along with a kind of looseness and beat-sensibility reminiscent of the new wave. Thomas Dolby? Talking Heads? And still other tracks, like “The Risk Of The Middle Way” and “We Are The New Man,” swell into big, timeless scores that wouldn’t feel out of place in a 1940’s film. Is that a vintage utopian choral arrangement I hear? Why, yes it is. But nowhere is there more evidence of Climber’s new, blithier spirit than in “Integration!,” an unabashed toe-tapper that’s the musical equivalent of a grown man skipping down the street… and loving it. “It’s all of that and none of that,” says Nelson. The Mystic reminds you of something you can’t quite remember. It’s an album that deserves to be known intimately, and it grows deeper with each listen. “Roll your rocks uphill until you tire,” Nelson sings at one point, as if from a higher place. As if the band has paid their dues and emerged wiser and less burdened. If the album artwork is any indication of the band’s expanded palette and freed imagination—and it is—we’re witnessing nothing short of a musical rebirth. The theme that runs like a vein through The Mystic is “man against himself.” Climber turns this over in its head, considering it, brooding over it, even making fun of it. And in the end, accepting all of it with gratitude, joy even. If this sounds like an optimistic album, it’s because it is. But it’s the best kind of optimism—the kind that comes from taking the hard path. The Mystic is an endearing album in that sense, and it makes us all want to join in Climber’s journey and wonder, Where are they taking us next?