POP MUSIC REVIEW : Idaho’s Viper Room Outing Unfocused, Casual to a Fault

On its current album, “This Way Out,” the group Idaho--which played the Viper Room on Wednesday--sounds like an auxiliary of the American Music Club, the San Francisco band that has elevated anomie to its pop pinnacle. Jeff Martin’s thick drawl sounds as if it’s slipping wearily out of a rumpled bed, and his wobbly, yearning tones offer impressionistic images of a soul adrift.

In Martin’s augmented folk-jazz approach, lead guitar forms feedback clouds above modified chords whose off-notes contribute to a mood of melancholy. Sometimes the ennui is so heavy that there’s barely enough energy to nudge a flat line into a melodic shape.

Perhaps sensing that the Viper Room wasn’t the place to go all ambient, Martin and his three musicians included lots of louder numbers Wednesday, and a couple of fast ones as well. But this show was casual to a fault, closer to the feel of an open rehearsal than a definitive presentation.

Idaho has earned some attention with its two albums, but after a recent lineup change that leaves Martin as the key force, it’s hard to tell where he wants to take it. At the Viper Room the artistic vision went in and out of focus as often as Martin’s voice disappeared from the mix.