The ‘She’ in this record’s title is something of a mystery. On the strength of the ten new songs on Josh Haden‘s latest album she’s more likely to be in the kitchen whipping up breakfast than haunting anyone’s, in particular Josh‘s, dreams.
You see, this is a disturbingly smooth and light collection of alt-country. Coming in at an easy 45 minutes it’s oddly low tar for its genre and as such is a bit, er, boring. What’s more, it’s particularly disappointing since Josh‘s recent ‘Blue Moods Of Spain’ album was an altogether more original take on ‘sad’.
Fans of Smog‘s queer, clammy psychodrama and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy‘s doom-country will find ‘She Haunts My Dreams’ distinctly ‘no depression’. As it goes, there’s a nasty sense of smugness (not helped by the Ronan Keating-esque lyrics) rife in songs like ‘I’m Leaving You’ and the pleasant-if-dull ‘Easy Lover’.
Psychotherapy and the fear of God don’t necessarily go in hand with playing the guitar rather well, but that sort of makes the genre a bit more interesting. As it is Spain are an innocuous little town off the alt-country interstate. It might be nice to drive through: but what’s gonna make you stop there?