By Tim Mahony
The music of Mazzy Star has been in my life for a long time. While traveling after high school my So Tonight That I Might See cassette was as important as my passport and the thirst for more soon lead me to their first album She Hangs Brightly. By the time the third album Among My Swan was released in 1996 I was a hopeless devotee. These three albums feel like my close friends. Each one carries with it a very different and very vivid set of memories that recall the time, place and events occurring around me while I was first listening to them and each album has soundtracked a million other occasions since then.
To this day they generate the same excitement and give me the same comfort that they always have.
I had always just assumed that would be it, three precious albums to treasure forever, but here we are in 2013 with a new Mazzy Star album titled Seasons of Your Day; an album of ten Mazzy Star songs that I haven't listened to 3 million times before.
I am very happy to report that a true Mazzy Star album is exactly what this is, and a very beautiful one at that. It sounds just like Mazzy Star, it has that same unmistakable atmosphere, it makes me feel like I always do when I listen to them, and it explores the many different shades of their music that combine to form that sound. If you are a long time listener then you'll know exactly what I mean and if you are new to the band then I think this album will serve as a great starting point to discovering for yourself what that sound is.
Mazzy Star's music is often associated with late nights and the epic 'Spoon', with its long instrumental passages, is the perfect song to take you cruising down that dark highway in your mind on a balmy night with a slightly sinister feeling hanging in the air. As the night fades and the sky begins to fill with the morning light you roll into town and 'California' is the song playing on the radio. As the afternoon closes in and the hot summer sun is beating down through the windscreen you've got the windows open and 'I've Gotta Stop' is making everything feel alright again. At the same time this music is just as much winter as it is summer. 'Sparrow' could comfort you on the rainiest of days and I'm almost certain that 'Common Burn', with its sparse guitar phrases and slow harmonica, would be enough to keep you warm on the coldest day of the year as the snow falls gently outside.
This is music for summer, winter, day, night, happy, sad and everything in between - all the seasons of your day.
So how is it that an album released 17 years after its predecessor fits so perfectly alongside the Mazzy Star albums of the past? The most obvious element is of course singer Hope Sandoval, whose voice is as strong as ever, but it is the relationship between Hope's voice and David Roback's guitar that is the key to the Mazzy Star sound. It's like musical alchemy. From beautifully crafted electric guitar phrases ('In The Kingdom') to cruisey acoustic strumming ('Lay Myself Down') and dirty blues slide ('Flying Low') there's just something about the composition, tone and the way he plays that makes the guitar parts as instantly recognisable as Hope's voice. Together they tell their own version of the same story; weaving, entwining, and moving forward and backward in the musical space allowing each to have their turn. On 'Spoon' this interaction is taken a step further as renowned guitarist Bert Jansch joins them and the resulting guitar interplay makes this song a definite album highlight for me. Keith Mitchell's drums come and go as required, serving the songs perfectly, and the presence of Colm Ó Cíosóig on bass provides a nice link between this and Hope's work with The Warm Inventions.
It is 17 years since their last album and to be honest I like it when bands or singers take their time between album releases. I find that it often results in albums that feel very carefully crafted and considered. In a recent interview David stated that he and Hope haven't stopped playing music together over the past 17 years, they just never got around to releasing anything until now. I love that and maybe it is the biggest key to understanding why the album works so well. This is not a comeback or a reunion or an attempt to recreate anything because as it turns out Mazzy Star, like this listener, never went away.
