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Since releasing some of the finest shoegaze singles and albums in the early '90s with his band Slowdive, Neil Halstead has slowly become one of Britain's most respected songwriters. While Slowdive had more to do with sounds than songs, the transition that band made into Mojave 3 in the mid-'90s allowed Halstead to further emulate the largely late-'60s-based folk-rock songwriters with whom he had become enamored. Along the way, Halstead did something of a tightrope act by earning comparisons to those figures without being accused of mere mimicry or tiresome revivalism. At some point shortly after the release of Mojave 3's third album, 2000's Excuses for Travellers, Halstead found himself without normal living quarters (the result of a breakup), and he opted to hang his hat at a studio for a couple months. With several orphaned Mojave 3 songs kicking around, Halstead took advantage of his situation and recorded them for a possible solo album. He left the studio after finding an actual p...