HALFLIGHT

Reviewed: "Rush", "Take Me Away" & "About Yourself" MP3's
Website: www.halflight.info

In a similar way to Belly in the early 90's, Halflight play 'nice' music. I know that's a lazy way of describing anyone, but I cant think of any other way of saying it - its just 'nice' music. But 'nice' in a good way.

Un-offensive, unpretentious, well crafted, well performed, intelligent pop music at its best.

There is such a huge amount of crossover appeal in the music that I think anyone, from the most hardcore punk to the most withering pensioner, would have difficulty finding fault in it.

The most immediate and powerful aspect of the CD is the singing - haunting yet uplifting, Sarah's unique voice could carry the CD on its own, regardless of the music behind it. That's not to say there's anything wrong with the music, far from it, but it really is secondary to the vocals, and the whole CD comes across as an intense personal solo project.

The CD contains 3 tracks written by Halflight, as well as an old Jylt track. I don't remember Jylt (although I'm sure I played a gig with them at some point...), but the Jylt track is the weakest of the four on the CD - which, if anything, is a good sign, showing that the songwriting is continually improving.

On the down side (c'mon, there's always a downside to these reviews!), Halflight could suffer from being lost in the background noise of everyday life, a victim of their own musical politeness.

With most CDs, Ill listen to them a few times until I'm sick of them, and then swap them for something else. The Halflight CD, however, I just left running for over an hour without realizing it - this is great in one respect (I didn't get sick of it!), but at the same time didn't even notice what was playing anymore, it just became the background noise - a minor criticism (or compliment, depending on how you look at it), I know.

In conclusion: excellent debut CD, with masses of potential. Wales needs a great new songwriter, and it might have just found it in...

The Best Bit: Track 1 - "Where the Pins Drop"
The Worst Bit: Trying to find a picture of the rest of the band on the Halflight website to go with this review - there isn't one!

Reviewed by MT