Sleepwalking

Neil Halstead has such a soothing voice, it's hard not to like everything the guy puts out. Sleeping on Roads, his debut solo album, is no exception.

Halstead, currently frontman for quasi-Americana folksters Mojave 3, grabbed these nine leftover tunes from the recording sessions of Mojave 3's 2000 record Excuses for Travellers. The songs--from more up-tempo tunes like "Seasons" to slow ballads like "Dreamed I Saw Soldiers"--are based around Halstead's gentle acoustic guitar picking, with piano, organs, trumpets and synthesizers lightly gracing the bottom of the mix. The production and instrumentation is more stripped down than in his work with Mojave 3, giving Sleeping on Roads a more intimate feel.

Although the melancholy lyrics are not as strong as some of his other work, Halstead's voice and gentle melodies more than make up for it. The aptly titled Sleeping on Roads is just that: a record of sleepy tunes to pass the time driving on some country road out in the middle of nowhere. The scenery may not be striking, but it's just indescribably nice.