Mazzy Star - Among My Swan
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Free Music Notes for Among My Swan
Free Music Review: Come back, Mazzy Star
Hit: 4 Stars
The first track, "Disappear" features a lovely pluked electric guitar that sounds more pacific than an acoustic somehow. The song is neither startling, nor mind-blowing, and is a perfect beginning to a peaceful, alluring, but not quite first rate album by the first, and still the best band to combine psychedelia with slowcore. "Flowers in December" is well written, overt beauty overlaid with meloncholy, and Hope Sandoval's voice is absolutely gourgeous. "Rhymes of an Hour" and "Happy" are also strong, though there are a few songs of lesser intensity such as "Still Cold" "Cry, Cry, Cry" and "Roseblood." "I've Been Let Down" reminds us that Mazzy Star has at least a toe in country music, and "Take Everything" benefits from the guitar work of the Jesus and Mary Chain, and an excellent Sandoval vocal, and is one of the strongest pieces here. The album plays very much of a piece, and this is mostly a strength, though partially as a consequence there is nothing here to rival the glories of "Five String Serenade" from So That Tonight I May See, although the closer, "Look On Down From the Bridge" Basically, I would listen to Sandoval sing the phone book, hell I'd listen to her sing Kelly's Blue Book, but this is a well written, accomplished album whose strengths only cause us to recall how much we miss the band.Free Music Review: Mellow Brilliance.
Hit: 5 Stars
I was very reluctant to buy this album. Not because I didn't think it would be good, but because its predecessor, SO TONIGHT THAT I MIGHT SEE, ranks as one of my greatest, stomp-down, if-I-was-stuck-on-a-deserted-island-with-only-one-album-and-a-CD-player, all-time favorites. I bought the album shortly after it was released and savored it like expensive absinthe for more than ten years before I nerved myself up for another glass o' Hope Sandoval & Company. You see, while I was sure the album would be "good", relatively speaking, I was equally sure that I would be disappointed in it - what the hell kind of follow-up album could possibly escape the shadow of such a dark masterwork as SO TONIGHT THAT I MIGHT SEE? What could match hauntingly beautiful, achingly sad, subtly brilliant songs like "Fade Into You", "Blue Light, Red Light" and "Sweet Mary Silence"? Absolutely nothing, surely.
I needn't have worried.
From the opening strains of "Disappear", Mazzy immediately re-establishes the dark, red-lit, drunk-on-wine-and-feeling-profoundly-sad atmosphere of the previous album. If anything, Hope seems to have washed down an extra-large fistfull of librium with her Burgundy when writing AMONG MY SWAN. This is one seriously mellow album, but - always a sign of total genius - it never crosses the line into bathos. And just like TONIGHT, it does what only great albums can do: its individual tracks, good as they might be ("Cry, Cry", "Still Cold", "All Your Sisters" and "Look On Down From the Bridge" are in particular absolutely smashing songs), weave together so neatly that the listener often can't tell (and doesn't care) where one ends and the other begins. Rather, they form a kind of tapestry, an atmosphere, a unifying mood, which pervades not for one song but for the entire album. It's for this reason that I never listen to individual songs on TONIGHT or SWAN, but rather the entire albums from start to finish. To do anything less is like prying a single emerald out of a jewel-encrusted crown. You can do it, but why bother?
By the bye, an album like AMONG MY SWAN should be listened to in the following manner:
1. Turn off cell phone. With hammer if necessary.
2. Extinguish all electric lights.
3. Triple-lock door.
4. Draw hot bath.
5. Light candles and leave around tub.
6. Light cigar.
7. Pour one large glass absinthe. Dissolve sugar.
8. Strip.
9. Sink into tub up to chin.
10. Press "Play."
Free Music Review: Memories of past Decembers
Hit: 4 Stars
My favorite is, "Flowers in December" and for some reason (maybe the riffs) I think of the old Everly Bros. ballads, especially, "So Sad" and "Devoted to You". Great song and album!!Free Music Review: Mellow melancholia
Hit: 5 Stars
Alright, you wanna get Mazzy Star's best album? Well, here you go. I'd be lying if I said all their material isn't great, but I think they finally captured an entirely consistent album with "Among My Swan".
You have the beautiful swirling guitar melody with "Disappear", the songs "Flowers In December" and "Rhymes of an Hour" that lean on the acoustic side, those country/folksy gems "Cry, Cry" and "I've Been Let Down", "Take Everything" full of intense emotion, the darkly mysterious "All Your Sisters" and "Umbilical", the insanely gorgeous and heartbreaking tale of a female dealing with internal struggles on "Roseblood", and beautiful organ music on "Look On Down From the Bridge" that would be perfect for a funeral.
I suppose this album does show they only got better in time. Though unfortunately, this is the last album they've put out in years. Maybe that'll change because I'm anticipating the future release another Mazzy album.
Free Music Review: Other stuff to check out
Hit: 4 Stars
I am a huge fan of catchy, quiet yet melodic folk/pop. If you enjoy this album then I strongly recommend that you check out the following:
1) What's Next To The Moon by Mark Kozelek
2) Paper Dolls And Paper Plates by Fear Of Commitment
3) So Tonight That I Might See by Mazz Star
4) Songs About Leaving by Carissa's Wierd