Mazzy Star "Among My Swan" (1996)

Among My Swan
release date: Oct. 29, 1996
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: David Roback, Hope Sandoval
label: Capitol Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Disappear" - 2. "Flowers in December" (4 / 5) (live) - 3. "Rhymes of an Hour" - 5. "Take Everything" - 7. "All Your Sisters" - 8. "I've Been Let Down"

3rd studio album by Mazzy Star follows (another) three years after their sophomore So Tonight That I Might See (1993). All songs here are credited David Roback and Hope Sandoval.

The album introduces a change of style as the album is primarily founded on the use of acoustic guitars instead of the feedback electric guitar sound on the first two albums, and the bond to both the 'baroque pop' of the '60s as well as to Velvet Underground has been accentuated.

The album produced the UK top-40 single "Flowers in December" but apart from that the album was seen as a lesser album, and also music critics seemed less drawn to the change of style.

After the release, the band went on a live tour and also began work on a follow-up, but they found the demands of the record label management intolerable with "the money people" interfering in their creative craftmanship and Sandoval and Roback eventually asked to be released from their contractual obligations. Without officially dissolving, the band went on a hiatus in '97 that should last fourteen years and Among My Swan was eventually followed by the fourth album in 2013, Seasons of Your Day.

I find this one on a completely different level than the first two albums. It simply tastes too much of the '60s. It's good but not really essential.

[ allmusic.com 3.5 / 5 stars ]

Mazzy Star "So Tonight That I Might See" (1993)

So Tonight That I Might See
release date: Oct. 5, 1993
format: cd / vinyl (2022 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,76]
producer: David Roback
label: Capitol Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Fade Into You" (4,5 / 5) (live on Later) - 2. "Bells Ring" (4 / 5) - 3. "Mary of Silence" - 7. "Unreflected" - 9. "Into Dust" - 10. "So Tonight That I Might See"

2nd studio album by Mazzy Star following nearly 3½ years after the debut She Hangs Brightly (1990). Since then, the band signed with Capitol after the Rough Trade division closed in the US, and it appears that although both Keith Mitchell and Will Cooper of Opal participate on the album, they are merely additional personnel, and Mazzy Star has become what it basically always was: the duo-project of composer, guitarist and pianist David Roback and songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Hope Sandoval.

At first, the album sounds much alike the predecessor, in tone and especially sound, as the style has become even darker and mesmerising with drone-like guitar-sequences with Sandoval's haunting vocal on top.

"Fade into You" became the band's first and only top-100 single in the US peaking at #44; however, the band may never have aimed at making hit songs and becoming mainstream artists, but the album is often found listed among the best Dream Pop albums ever made [Pitchfork's 30 best dream pop albums].

The album comes out as the aural version of a highly original dream landscape - both hauntingly beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Roback and Sandoval appear more laid back on this, although, some tracks are 'noise rock' influenced and the title track sounds unimaginable without thinking of "The End" by The Doors and (perhaps also) "Heroin" by Velvet Underground, but overall I find it bettering their debut. This is simply their best studio album.

Now, did anyone say Lana Del Rey? Well, I betcha she heard this one!

Highly recommendable.

[ allmusic.com, Uncut 4,5 / 5, NME, Sputnikmusic 4 / 5, Soundlab 5 / 5 stars ]

Mazzy Star "She Hangs Brightly" (1990)

She Hangs Brightly
release date: May 21, 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: David Roback
label: Rough Trade Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Halah" - 2. "Blue Flower" (live on Later) - 3. "Ride It On" - 6. "Give You My Lovin' " - 7. "Be My Angel" - 10. "Free"

Studio album debut by American indie rock band Mazzy Star, which basically is the continued project of the band Opal (initially named Clay Allison) - a band with Kendra Smith (of The Dream Syndicate) on vocals and bass, and after her departure, the remaining members changed name to Mazzy Star, which here is made up by songwriter and main musical composer David Roback (former member of The Rain Parade), who is credited as guitarist, keyboardist and pianist, Hope Sandoval on acoustic guitar, organ, harmonica, xylophone, and drummer Keith Mitchell. Allegedly, Sandoval replaced Smith in Opal for the live tour after the band's debut album, and after some time touring as that unit, and as they were still contractually bound to a follow-up to the debut with songs composed and written by Smith / Roback ready to be recorded, but Sandoval had also initiated a composer partnership with Roback, and the decision was then made to trade the Opal follow-up contract with Rough Trade for the debut release with a bunch of new songs by Mazzy Star.

Stylistically, the band stands out as one of the prominent artists of what became known as the style of Shoegaze / Dream Pop with strong bonds and influence from 'noise rock' and the sound of Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. The sound is stripped from the element of noise rock and instead Mazzy Star focusses on the moody side, which also connects them with Cocteau Twins, who on the other hand played with a more layered wall-of-sound to create their visceral sound. Mazzy Star may start as a band but is primarily held together by its two songwriters, Sandoval and Roback, and the music is related to the Paisley Underground movement with bands like The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, and Thin White Rope amongst others. Hope Sandoval has her very own singing style and melancholic sound with bonds to Nico, Marianne Faithfull and Leonard Cohen, and followers like Cat Power and Lana Del Rey is mentioned as singers who owe much of their singing style to Sandoval.

I really enjoy the songs by Sandoval and Roback, who support each other quite nicely. Sandoval's almost mourning vocal is a fine balanced blend of periods and styles, but all with focus on a certain melancholy, and Roback's swirling guitar is another fine blend with reminiscence of Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Stooges, and then also contemporaries like Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Jim & William Reid (The Jesus & Mary Chain) and Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), and the production sound of She Hangs Brightly is somewhere in the neighbourhood of the same bands with strong spacious feedback on both vocal and guitars helps creating that "dreamy" atmosphere, which paved way for the style of dream pop.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, NME, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine 4 / 5, Select 5 / 5 stars ]