Palindrome Hunches (album)

Palindrome Hunches is Neil Halstead's third and latest solo album.




 * 1) Digging Shelters
 * 2) Bad Drugs and Minor Chords
 * 3) Wittgenstein's Arm
 * 4) Spin The Bottle
 * 5) Tied To You
 * 6) Love Is a Beast
 * 7) Palindrome Hunches
 * 8) Full Moon Rising
 * 9) Sandy
 * 10) Hey Daydreamer
 * 11) Loose Change

One of the most interesting albums, Palindrome Hunches has a unique and intriguing history. The album was recorded in a primary school music room, which Neil Halstead and several others gained access to by bribing the janitor with several bottles of wine. This gives the album a unique sound that would not have been allowed-for in a studio.

This is the most heavily acoustic albums, and incorporates only string instruments -- a piano is also used in several of the songs. This album is mostly about time and relationships, according to Halstead himself.

Notable Trivia

 * Digging Shelters -
 * Bad Drugs and Minor Chords uses several strange, mumbled words in its chorus, but it seems that it's written from the point of view of a person who doesn't really have a very exciting life, and so uses drugs in between work shifts to spice things up.
 * Wittgenstein's Arm is written about a World War I veteran and piano player, who lost an arm in the war and made a name for himself as a one-armed piano player afterwards. He had a very depressing life throughout, and it inspired this song.
 * Spin the Bottle was, according to Halstead, written when he was having some troubles with his wife. The song's words, mentioning the game of "spin the bottle" and saying that playing it probably won't change much, imply that Halstead was at wits' end with the issues.
 * Tied to You -
 * Love is a Beast -
 * Palindrome Hunches mentions Kansas City, a Missouri city in the United States midwest. Why Halstead would have connections to such is unknown.
 * Full Moon Rising states the moon's color as brown, hinting that the song may have been written on a strange night with an odd moon.
 * Sandy -
 * Hey Daydreamer - Halstead has described this song as being about "wanting to be everywhere at once, I suppose,". The song has two distinct, opposing viewpoints; neither narrator is content, but the first wishes to settle down, have a family, find love, and live his life peacefully, whereas the other wishes the opposite -- minus the love, which he also wishes to find.
 * Loose Change is one of two songs -- the other being "Sometimes the Wheels" -- in which Halstead curses, namely in the line "it's the same old shit with a different slant, yeah,".