Neil Halstead

Since releasing some of the finest shoegaze singles and albums of 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...