Formerly of Slowdive and now best-known as one of Mojave 3, Neil Halstead - primary creative force in both these bands - has followed a steady progression from shoegazing to this latest dispatch of quietly introspective folk music.
Apparently the outcome of some time spent sleeping in a studio following a relationship break-up, 'Sleeping On Roads' sounds every bit as a record made in such circumstances should. The songs have the fragility of a sixth-former's emotional world with the musical eloquence of a songwriter who's been releasing albums since '91.
Like many of his contemporaries Halstead is short on innovation and largely dependent on his very pronounced forebears for a musical language: Nick Drake, Dylan and even Bert Jansch loom large throughout. And there's more than a hint of Belle & Sebastian in the naive charm of Halstead's themes and tentative nature of his delivery. 'High Hopes' is heavily reminiscent of Dylan's 'It Ain't Me Babe' and yet, this shouldn't and doesn't detract from the quality of the songs.
'Two Stones In My Pocket' is a touchingly gentle breeze through wispy acoustic chords and restrained instrumentation, Halstead's Nick Drake phrasing perfectly conjuring the freely associated romanticism of the lyrics. 'Hi-Lo And Inbetween' is a beatifically saddened lament on a failed relationship that opens with one of the album's many memorable soundbites: "One day it just snowed I guess and they closed the roads into your heart."
The aching sensitivity of many of these lonely acoustic compositions is balanced against an inventive backdrop of instrumentation. Unobtrusive layers of percussion, electric guitar, vibes, organ, piano and synths augment each track, finding their apex on 'See You On Rooftops'. Here, Halstead transcends the simple folk picking of the album's less engaging moments and points in a direction that owes little to either Mojave 3 or any of the ghosts that haunt the other corners of this quietly wonderful album.
