The new Mazzy Star album, Seasons Of Your Day, presents a couple of interesting conundrums. It’s been seventeen years of silence since the gorgeous Among My Swan ended a trifecta of striking, reverb layered pop albums. Seasons Of Your Day picks up almost exactly where Among My Swan left off. It’s as though Mazzy Star crafted the album in 1996, and then waited seventeen years to release it.
Mazzy Star songs still ooze with Hope Sandoval’s whiskey-soaked voice, which continues to sound like a thousand whispered comments, spoken by secret lovers. Behind Sandoval, David Roback’s acoustic, slide, and sluggish melancholy guitar play wistfully. The first conundrum is this. Since Mazzy Star’s dissolution, the other bands making music via the same recipe of reverbed pop, has become abundant. Is Mazzy Star to be graded for this album against that, or do we simply agree that the world finally caught up to their substantial learning curve?
Opening with a very similar sound to how Mazzy Star closed Among My Swan, “In The Kingdom” is all dreamy organs, light drums, and Hope Sandoval intimacy. Sandoval’s vocals are, to me, akin to the trail of gas that Bugs Bunny dealt with when he met Gossamer. They grab you gently, lift you up, and spirit you away to another place. “In The Kingdom” injects an almost preacher’s ballad swing, into the Mazzy Star soup.
“California” is a quiet, bluesy number, relying almost solely on Roback’s guitar work, and Sandoval’s vocals. As beautiful as the Seasons Of Your Day is, the voyage rarely takes an unexpected term. Acoustic guitars are joined with saturated reverb in “I’ve Gotta Stop,” while “Does Someone Have Your Baby Now” once more focuses on lush singing, and barebones acoustic strumming. When the union between Roback and Sandoval is on point, as with the stunningly bleak title track, or the country-twang tinged “Lay Myself Down,” there are few bands in the genre that can come near them. So why doesn’t the record blow the doors of the hinges? Even in a quiet, dark, moody club way?
When a band with the cache of Mazzy Star announces their return to form, the excitement can be palpable, and that could be the Achilles Heel of Seasons Of Your Day. Old school fans that might be expecting some new variation on what Mazzy Star has done, could see this as a dull repeat. What’s worse, those who are not familiar with the band, might see this as just another indie group discovering the slide guitar, and reverb pedal, for the first time.
Both of those are worst-case scenarios, but the ideas are true. Something inspired Mazzy Star to step back into the limelight after nearly two decades, and whatever that inspiration was, it didn’t motivate them to step outside their comfort zone. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the jams Mazzy Star whips out on Seasons Of Your Day are excellent. However, it is a nagging bit of doubt, something that sits with you after the album ends, and raises another conundrum, one of why listen to this album above any of the other three? After so long apart, and other solo projects, was there no way to expand Mazzy Star?
Ultimately, approach Seasons Of Your Day with caution, but make sure you still approach it.
