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Release Date: May 1, 2007 Label: Nettwerk Records Related Sites: · Official Site Grade: B-

There is a familial air of maturity that permeates Ghost Stories, with a love song about her hubby ("Mad About You") and oldest son Rowan calling out "mommy" which can be heard at the onset of "Waiting for the Sun". Children are obviously on the mind as even the beginning piano of "Asylum" sounds like a nursery rhyme. It may have been four years since her last studio album, but Chantal has been plenty busy in that time with such diverse activities as marrying Maida and starting a family, co-writing songs for other artists (most significantly six songs with Avril Lavigne for her album Under My Skin) and performing on episodes of Canadian Idol.

Having said that, my initial impression is that after two tremendous opening tracks it's pretty much a hit and miss affair from there on out. The lovely strings that accentuate many of the songs open "Ghost of You" before it transitions into a kind of piano-based Dido "Thank You" groove. The first single, "All I Can Do", is a buoyant missive of encouragement to someone down-and-out ("All I can do is love you to pieces/Give you a shoulder to cry when you need it/When the day is long and the night is coming down on you").

The album turns introspective after these two up-tempo numbers, never reaching the lively standard set forth but settling into haunting melodies apropos of its title. Shades of her influences can be determined here and there, with sections sounding like Sarah McLachlan and Björk (and I suppose you could say Paula Cole in the first two tracks). "Spoke in Tongues" in particular evokes the capricious of Tori Amos, and "You Blame Yourself" less successfully apes Kate Bush. It's that high-pitched vocalizing -- the kind by the Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan that has always annoyed the crap out of me -- that hits the nerve in my finger that seeks out the "stop" button.

The heterogeneity of Ghost Stories shows musical growth, and in that respect Kreviazuk endeavors to move forward harmonically as she has in her personal life. The experiments don't always work -- "Wendy House" stops and starts several times in jarring fashion -- but the lush and gospel-inflected pop reveals depth upon repeated listenings and showcases an evolution in songcraft that is admirable.