Sleeping on Roads

Sleeping on Roads

Track Listings

1. Seasons

2. Two Stones in My Pocket

3. Driving with Bert

4. Hi-Lo and Inbetween

5. See You on Rooftops

6. Martha's Mantra (For the Pain)

7. Sleeping on Roads

8. Dreamed I Saw Soldiers

9. High Hopes

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Given that Brit guitarist-songwriter Neil Halstead's work with both Slowdive and Mojave 3 is as sleepy as it is pretty, you'd think his first solo record would provide him the chance to stretch and maybe even break a string in pursuit of a bona fide rock moment. Instead, Halstead's Sleeping on Roads--basically, a home recording featuring a bunch of his friends contributing everything from "computer skills and technical stuff" to "funny noises"--dims the lights even more. While tracks like the chiming, trumpet-tweaked opener "Seasons" point to a keen sense of melody, Halstead wastes no time in shifting the mood, and gaslight weepers like "Martha's Mantra (for the Pain)," "High Hopes," and "Dreamed I Saw Soldiers"--all almost unbearably downcast ruminations--dominate the set. Still, Halstead's delicate touch with guitar and his barely-there vocals sustain the sense of quiet introspection throughout the album's nine tracks. Winsome, ethereal folk never sounded so good, or so haunted. --Kim Hughes

Tracks:

Seasons
Two Stones in My Pocket
Driving with Bert
Hi-Lo and Inbetween
See You on Rooftops
Martha's Mantra (For the Pain)
Sleeping on Roads
Dreamed I Saw Soldiers
High Hopes

Amazon.com

Given that Brit guitarist-songwriter Neil Halstead's work with both Slowdive and Mojave 3 is as sleepy as it is pretty, you'd think his first solo record would provide him the chance to stretch and maybe even break a string in pursuit of a bona fide rock moment. Instead, Halstead's Sleeping on Roads--basically, a home recording featuring a bunch of his friends contributing everything from "computer skills and technical stuff" to "funny noises"--dims the lights even more. While tracks like the chiming, trumpet-tweaked opener "Seasons" point to a keen sense of melody, Halstead wastes no time in shifting the mood, and gaslight weepers like "Martha's Mantra (for the Pain)," "High Hopes," and "Dreamed I Saw Soldiers"--all almost unbearably downcast ruminations--dominate the set. Still, Halstead's delicate touch with guitar and his barely-there vocals sustain the sense of quiet introspection throughout the album's nine tracks. Winsome, ethereal folk never sounded so good, or so haunted. --Kim Hughes

Customer Reviews:

Great, as expected........2005-10-23

I love Neil's compositions. I find him incredibly talented. A fan of slowdive and, especially mojave 3, I knew I was in for a treat!... And was not disappointed. It's different than his other songs with mojave ( and of course than the wall of sounds of slowdive), more intimate, simpler, but exceptional. It is nice to hear yet another side of Neil Halstead. I always love his voice also. The lyrics are intimate and deep. For me all the songs are withstanding many listenings.
It's so different from his other works, though, that I would expect some folks not to follow him in such simple music.

Belle trouvaille.......2005-08-28

Un superbe album. Je le recommande fortement. Très belles mélodies, un album pour ''road trip''. Très paisible, cet album vous fera certainement passer un très bon moment.

Wow.......2005-06-29

This is, quite possibly, the most beautiful album I've ever heard. While there is nothing here that is past tense in any way, this album still takes me back to the early 70's and reminds me how I felt before I learned life can sometimes deal you something other than Aces & Queens.

If you like dense melodies, clean rythem with a little melancholy thrown in on the side from time to time. You'll love this album. There's not even one track that gets less than 5 stars.

Good, but not as impressive after hearing Mojave 3.......2005-04-19

I've been digging into all the discography associated with Neil Halstead's artistic life in the past year. First, I listened to Mojave 3, and I loved what I heard. Then I went back to the music he did under Slowdive, at the beginning of the shoegazing movement, and I loved what I heard. I had a chance to listen to the free download Amazon offers from this album, "Two Stones In My Pocket", and I loved what I heard... so the natural thing for me to do was to get the album, and I did.

I didn't love what I heard. Not that the album was bad or anything remotely like that. But I found it to be monotonous compared to his work with Mojave 3. Most of the songs, all of them fairly folk-rock in nature, felt like they dragged longer than they should have, which is an issue I admit I even had with some Mojave 3 tracks. So, all in all, if you haven't heard any of Neil's previous work, I think you will enjoy the album, but if not, check out Mojave 3's "Ask Me Tomorrow" or any of Slowdive's albums first. I think you will find them far more enjoyable.

Love Embodied in Music.......2004-01-22

Neil Halstead's "Sleeping on Roads" is the perfect album. I pop it in and I am taken to goodness and wholeness, to the real me, the true me, the best me, the loving, empathetic and open to life and experience me. I am no longer filled with despair and fear and pessimism. I am lifted by hope and optimism. To me it is the wonderful side of the human experience. It is an intriguing mystery you want to dive into head first; it is empowering and life affirming. I listen to this and I feel love and compassion. Indeed, "Sleeping on Roads" is all that intangible love embodied in and expressed through music. This album manages to perfectly balance the two competing existential human needs of Eros (the need to feel significant and meaningful as an individual) and Agape (the need to feel that one is a part of something greater than oneself and to give oneself over to that universal force). This is why I feel so comfortable and whole listening to this album and why it seems so familiar even upon first listening.

Now don't get me wrong I like Richard Ashcroft, but Ashcroft wishes he could make an album of such subtle lyrical grace, elegant, simple yet beautiful melody and nuanced and textured harmony. Halstead has reached a new plateau with this album, and I will always treasure it and hold it close to my heart. I will conjure it in my mind when things are rough and it will bring me back to who I truly am insofar as what I truly am is the greatest potential for wholeness, truth, beauty, courage, loving and goodness within me. This can be a reality; this album has made me a believer!

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Recommended Music:

Incident at Pilatus [Import]

Rockin' With Rachmaninoff

Music of Arnold Schoenberg, Vol.5

Lighthouse '68 [Extra tracks] [Live]

Roll Over Beethoven [Live] [Import]

Sceptor Years [Import]

Patchwork Quilt & Other Stories from Around World

Smetana: The Bartered Bride (Highlights)

Songbook: A Collection of Hits [Extra tracks] [Import]

Princess Gone ...The Saga Bed