
Sonic Cathedral
Neil Halstead - Palindrome Hunches (10th Anniversary)
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-
Slowdive
singer
and
songwriter’s
third
solo
album,
which
was
originally
released
in
November
2012.
It
is
a
stunning
record
and
one
which,
upon
its
release,
underlined
the
claims
that
Neil
was
one
of
the
finest
and
most
underrated
British
songwriters
of
recent
times.
It’s
also
a
very
special
release
in
the
Sonic
Cathedral
catalogue;
the
shoegaze
label
licensed
the
record
from
Jack
Johnson’s
Brushfire
imprint
for
the
UK
and
Europe
and
it
was
the
start
of
a
relationship
that
also
gave
us
the
Black
Hearted
Brother
album
in
2013
and,
ultimately,
brought
about
the
reformation
of
Slowdive
in
2014.
But
Palindrome
Hunches
is
a
very
different
beast.
Both
stately
and
understated,
this
moody
and
mesmerising
collection
of
peculiarly
British
folk
songs
was
made
with
the
Band
of
Hope,
a
Wallingford,
Oxfordshire
based
collective
consisting
of
Ben
Smith
(violin),
Drew
Milloy
(double
bass),
Paul
Whitty
(piano)
and
Tom
Crook
(guitar).
Together
with
producer
Nick
Holton,
banjo
player
Kevin
Wells
and
backing
singer
Aimee
Craddock,
they
recorded
the
album
to
tape
over
a
few
weekends
in
the
music
room
of
their
local
junior
school.
“At
first
we
were
going
to
record
in
a
studio,
but
everything
seemed
too
clean,”
said
Neil
at
the
time.
“We
just
went
through
the
songs
and
recorded
them
live
without
very
much
rehearsal.
We
wanted
to
be
spontaneous
and
simple
and
to
keep
the
little
mistakes
that
sneaked
in.”
This
goes
a
long
way
to
explaining
the
album’s
humanity
and
intimacy,
and
also
why
it
has
had
a
quiet
life
of
its
own
over
the
past
decade,
gradually
growing
in
stature
alongside
Neil’s
more
high-profile
activities
with
Slowdive;
copies
of
the
2012
original
and
even
the
2017
repress
currently
fetch
up
to
triple
figures
on
Discogs.
The
stunning
opener
‘Digging
Shelters’
was
used
to
devastating
effect
in
the
posthumously
released
James
Gandolfini
movie
Enough
Said
–
a
fitting
home
for
a
song
that
rubs
shoulders
here
with
ruminations
about
love
and
loss
such
as
‘Tied
To
You’
and
‘Spin
The
Bottle’
and,
on
‘Wittgenstein’s
Arm’,
an
Austrian
pianist
who
had
his
right
arm
amputated
in
World
War
I
and
lost
three
of
his
brothers
to
suicide.
The
wordplay
of
the
title
track
is
almost
light-hearted
in
comparison;
“I
wanted
to
write
a
song
that
was
the
same
forwards
and
backwards,
but
it
didn’t
quite
work
out,”
explained
Neil,
adding
that
he
also
chose
‘Palindrome
Hunches’
for
the
album’s
title
because
“I
like
the
idea
of
things
being
reversible”.
A
couple
years
later,
by
reforming
his
old
band,
he
proved
that.
And
now,
ten
years
on,
it’s
the
perfect
time
to
rewind
to
this
understated,
underrated
classic.
Side
A
1
Digging
Shelters
2
Bad
Drugs
and
Minor
Chords
3
Wittgenstein’s
Arm
4
Spin
The
Bottle
5
Tied
to
You
Side
B
1
Love
Is
a
Beast
2
Palindrome
Hunches
3
Full
Moon
Rising
4
Sandy
5
Hey
Daydreamer
6
Loose
Change.
Praise
for
Palindrome
Hunches
on
its
original
release:
““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?”
–
Pitchfork
An
exquisite
set
of
dark
folk
music”
–
The
Times
“Draws
from
the
same
understated,
reflective
well
as
John
Martyn”
–
MOJO
“‘Tied
To
You’
doesn’t
merely
evoke
Nick
Drake
but
withstands
the
comparison
–
evidence
of
the
songs’
quality”
–
Financial
Times
“Halstead’s
songs
breathe
the
sort
of
honesty
and
goodness
that’s
harder
and
harder
to
find
in
the
iTunes
age”
–
The
Independent
“Given
the
chance,
they
could
be
songs
that
continue
to
enchant
for
many
years
to
come”
–
The
Line
Of
Best
Fi
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