Neil Halstead – Sleeping On Roads
Neil Halstead’s debut solo album is a hushed, gorgeous affair with the ghost of Nick Drake drifting through its nine songs, and the tensile influences of Neil Young and Bert Jansch in their reflective folk guises poking through. The former bandleader for Slowdive and current frontman of Mojave 3 turns each song into prayerfully picked sonnets of longing, desire, and damage control. At the heart of the songs is a wound from a failed romance, but deft observations and piquant turns of phrase make the songs expansive and universal.
Sleeping On Roads is an excellent companion piece to Mojave 3’s 2000 album Excuses For Travellers, not only in its country-tinged melodies and simple arrangements, but also in its sense of wanderlust and romantic restlessness. Sleeping On Roads opens with “Seasons”, a song of yearning for new beginnings and longing tamed by time and disappointment. The song features Halstead’s gentle but not fragile voice and guitar with piano, organ, and glockenspiel accents. Each instrument seems carefully and precisely placed without tilting into fussy preciousness. It’s an early Sunday morning sound.
“Two Stones In My Pocket” turns the shoegazer’s eyes skyward over shuffling percussion and tambourine, with sunsets, bird-watching and plane-spotting all passing along in the impressionistic lyrics. “Hi-Lo And Inbetween” lets Halstead’s languorous delivery linger at the edge of hurt over gentle guitar and piano. His heart seems to dilate with remorse. Home is a feeling here, but it remains elusive.