Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 12/02/02
Label: Catskills

Helsinki's Husky Rescue present a peaceful and bucolic retreat away from the stresses and strains of modern life. On initial glance they aren't so much husky as foxy, slinky and seductive. This is the sort of album that will have some uttering the words "haunting", "evocative" and "ethereal". Well, perhaps they should also be to considering "somnambulant".

Given some time, their latest effort does remind one of the easy, default status sex music of Air (which is good and deserved) but on further listens it also echoes the slick coffee table, tranquiliser-friendly trip hop of Morcheeba and the vapidly pretty soundscapes of Moloko. But with added post rock-lite trimmings. It's easy to imagine singer Reeta-Leena Korhola equating what she does to an unexpected chance viewing of long forgotten Cine-8 footage of her own childhood. And while this may sound beguiling, such levels of wistfulness struggle to command your attention throughout "Ghost Is Not Real".

Opener "My Home Ghost" makes all the right noises, utilising chiming glockenspiels and fuzzy e-bow guitars. It's certainly dreamy but also makes you want to nod off. "Diamonds In The Sky", meanwhile, is the stereophonic equivalent of having a couple of calms and slipping into a nice ylang-ylang infused Radox bath. It's very nice and all that but is unlikely to be the highlight of your week. Uninspired pedal and lap steel playing and mellow vibraphones are deployed to have a soothing effect but instead reach the opposite, irritating conclusion.

In fact, by the time you get to the "Blueberry Tree" section towards the halfway mark, it becomes apparent that no amount of ambient window dressing (and there is quite a lot) can disguise the fact you're listening to this year's Sigur Ros or, God forbid, Enya. And while the genuinely catchy "Nightless Nights" sets controls for the far more interesting horizons of The Cardigans, circa their much overlooked "Long Gone Before Daylight", frankly, it's not enough.

One of the great joys of music journalism is never having to say "Well, it's only my opinion", but this album really highlights the difference in the ways that people 'use' music. You can imagine it succeeding as background, which, to this hack, is a black mark, settling for being pleasant and inoffensive where others strive to be beautiful and transcendent. Essentially, "Ghost Is Not Real" is like being offered a glass of Rola Cola when you asked for champagne.

    by John Doran