Artist: Neil Halstead
Album: Palindrome Hunches
Bitrate: 223kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Brushfire Records / Sonic Cathedral
Genre: Folk
Size: 76.23 megs
PlayTime: 0h 45min 04sec total
Rip Date: 2012-11-18
Store Date: 2012-11-09
Track List:
--------
01. Digging Shelters 3:40
02. Bad Drugs and Minor Chords 3:04
03. Wittgenstein's Arm 6:03
04. Spin the Bottle 3:34
05. Tied to You 4:27
06. Love is a Beast 3:41
07. Palindrome Hunches 2:02
08. Full Moon Rising 5:54
09. Sandy 4:57
10. Hey Daydreamer 3:23
11. Loose Change 4:19
Release Notes:
--------
The opener "Digging Shelters", in its calmly melancholy way, and the softly
chugging "Bad Drugs and Minor Chords" that follows it, essentially define where
the rest of the album goes. Between those two poles there's some variety; it
does get a little too samey by the end, albeit never without feeling pleasant.
Adding to the cozy feel, we're told Palindrome Hunches was recorded live in a
weekend at a music room in a UK primary school.
So, theoretically, it's neither Slowdive nor Mojave 3; instead, it's the kind of
understated solo release that tips its hand to Nick Drake ("Full Moon Rising" is
one of many moments where you basically can't think of anyone else) as much as
it does a whole swathe of early-70s, acoustic guitar-based releases, Halstead
singing a half-whispered reflection on where everything's been in his life and
others. At this point, he's not about reinvention so much as he is exploring
possibilities from a central start.
Returning to the first Slowdive release, the self-titled 1990 EP, where both
versions of "Avalyn" open with a treated acoustic strum and where on the first
one Halstead's vocals (blended with Rachel Goswell's) are delivered softly and
calmly, what has changed most in Halstead's work isn't the wellspring, per se,
but the means of delivery. He has, even at Slowdive's loudest and Mojave 3's
most sweeping and stately, always implicitly argued for the virtues of
gentility, of understated retrospection and performance, and emotion recalled
afterward. It's little surprise that the crypto-goth/post-punk roots of Slowdive
via bands like the Cure and early New Order tie into this sense of splendid
near-isolation, and that a solo career by default puts the focus all the more
clearly on this core.
So if "Wittgenstein's Arm" draws its lyrical inspiration from the story of a
wounded pianist from World War I (and therefore includes piano) and if the title
track is indeed all about palindromes (you'll never think of Satan quite the
same way), then everything still comes back to that point of origin. But as with
his earlier bands, it's the choice of arrangements and performance that drives
his solo work, a specific aiming for a sound. Halstead's performing reinvents no
wheels but never is anything less than well-done regardless, and the full
performances can often find their own impact, the violin of Ben Smith-- one of
several performers from Band of Hope playing as the backing group throughout--
often providing a softly killer touch on songs like "Love Is a Beast", "Full
Moon Rising", and especially in the nervous opening moments of "Tied to You".
By the time of the piano-led "Hey Daydreamer", one of the peppier songs in
context, the album's been the type of thing that seems right for the closing in
of the year through fall, something best heard in fading light, bundled a bit
against the cooler air, a little shared warmth-- cozy sweater folk, indeed.
Nope, it ain't shoegaze as it's been codified and re-codified. But why be
disappointed in someone following his muse to a logical conclusion when that
path was always the one he walked on?