January 31–February 7, 2002

cd reviews|rock/pop

Neil Halstead

Sleeping on Roads

(4AD)

Perfect for long, dark Sunday mornings of the soul, the solo debut from Slowdive/Mojave 3’s Neil Halstead is so suffused with evident emotion that it’s a wonder it doesn’t short-circuit your stereo. Built from recordings made while Halstead was sleeping in the studio after his girlfriend gave him the boot, Roads is a melancholy affair, but Halstead’s angelic rasp of a voice and crafty electro-folk arrangements keep the maudlin at bay. That’s not to say the album doesn’t have its lapses in judgment, mostly lyrical. A couple notables: "Heaven is the place that’s open after all the bars have closed," and a line that, no matter how many times I listen to it, still sounds like "She had breasts on the outside." But listening to the shattering simplicity of the Simon & Garfunkel-esque "Martha’s Mantra (For the Pain)" and the gentle, Nick Drake-ish "Hi-Lo and Inbetween" is like slipping into a warm bath, while the soaring, loping "See You on Rooftops" wakes you up before you slip beneath the surface. More adventurous and varied than Mojave 3’s (still wonderful) albums, Sleeping on Roads sounds among other things, like Halstead’s been enjoying a healthy love affair with the mixing console. For all its English pastoral roots, it comes off like the bachelor analogue to Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, a chronicle of a breakup foretold.

—Sam Adams