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The past is full of albums waiting to be discovered. Hidden gems. Listens denied to our ears. Bands to obsess over that will never be discovered. Albums to wear out that never will be. But. But sometimes a small short-circuit, a randomness, allows us to make great discoveries.
Hope Sandoval has an ethereal voice. Not of this world. Intangible and sensual. Hope is the voice of the best track from the latest Massive Attack. That “Paradise Circus” that enchants. The best track of the lot. And it's she who sings it, she who enchants and seduces.
But who is Hope Sandoval? What other melodies has she enchanted with her voice? I discover that she was the singer of such a band, Mazzy Star. A group that composed an album considered a small masterpiece back in 1993.
In 1993, there is Grunge. Nirvana. Pearl Jam. Stuff like that. Their nihilism. Their fury. But there is another America. Another music. Other soundscapes. Deconstruction, not anger. Where the singing is furious and the melodies burning, they respond with an ethereal voice and dreamy melodies.
“So Tonight That I Might See” (Mazzy Star’s masterpiece) is from 1993. The album opens with “Fade into you”. A piece that pierces you without noticing. A poignant and disenchanted folk ballad that captures you at first listen. The voice of Hope there to haunt you. Those touches of slide guitar. Piano. Just this track, one of the most beautiful ballads I've heard, would be enough to decree the beauty of this album. But “Fade into you” is just the first track of an (almost) perfect album.
“So Tonight That I Might See” is a succession of splendid songs, with echoes of the psychedelic school of The Doors and Velvet Underground, shoegaze reverberations, slow-core atmospheres, and a folk-pop soul. Then there is Hope's voice branding each track.
Rock like you've never heard it until now. Dilated. Ethereal. Slowed down to the extreme but, at the same time, stunning. A gem. A classic. A masterpiece with no more secrets. At least for me.
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