Mini-review of one of the most important albums in my musical growth. [Gosh, I feel like Frusciante!]
Although the Italian Wikipedia defines this album as little changed from the previous one, "She Hangs Brightly" of '90, I actually find that maturity and creativity are much greater in "So Tonight That I Might See", released three years later.
"Fade Into You", which starts the ball rolling, is one of those ballads you can always count on: magical, suspended in another dimension, a quasi-waltz at slow speed, few notes, precise, stretched through the slide effect, evoking California, childhood, and scenes of melancholic American summer.
We must consider that the LP is released in a period when grunge dominates the market, and thus a time when most young people identify with the anger communicated by artists like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Melvins, Tad, etc. In the United Kingdom, however, a new genre is emerging: trip hop, from Bristol. U2 and Depeche Mode are living on tails, embracing electronics - especially the former - dividing their fandoms. While U2 marry electronics with their pop-rock roots, the group of Gahan and Lee Gore adds more electric guitar parts. Meanwhile, a new trend, purely British, is on the horizon, which will fittingly be called "britpop", with Suede, Oasis, and Pulp. Again, it's about adolescent anger and discontent.
As noble as all these branches are, I believe the contribution of Mazzy Star to the music of the time is more substantial, original and magical: no anger, or rather, anger suffocated by sweetness and abandonment. Sandoval's voice is something relaxing and thrilling at the same time - seductive and menacing. The late David Roback, who, together with Hope, formed the compositional core of Mazzy Star (all songs were penned by the duo), weaves mesmeric guitar patterns, and also excels at the keyboards. A little more than a couple of session musicians (bass, drums, and strings) are enough for building the songs that make up the tracklist - each a demonstration of great synthesis ability, without lacking depth.
Listening to "So Tonight That I Might See", for me, is like taking a dive into the past of the early '90s, even though I didn't live it, and reaching another dimension. The most beautiful track on the album? "Mary of Silence", the third track, reminiscent of the doorsian "The End".
Rating: 9.5/10
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Fade Into You (04:55)
I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that's true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life
You go in shadows
You'll come apart and you'll go black
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what's not there
Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew
A stranger's light comes on slowly
A stranger's heart without a home
You put your hands into your head
And then smiles cover your heart
Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew
Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew
I think it's strange you never knew
02 Bells Ring (04:32)
Bells ring into the night
Like a mystery
Sounding at night
Hold your throat
And arm together
And see the light that goes away
Leave my heart down by the water
He spins inside my soul
It isn't true but you follow
Just hold me down by the water
They say you look like
I'm gonna leave her
Look up to see the weakness
In the sky
Nobody's eyes are bright and starry
Nobody wants to know your reason why
Hold your hands out towards the water
In front of me to know I'm with you
Don't put it all into your hero
Look on if you believe
Look on if you believe
Don't want to say that I'm through with it
Just want to be
Right by your side
Right by your side
03 Mary of Silence (06:02)
Oh Mary of Silence
You pick my heart with a smile
Oh sweet Mary
Come inside for a while
Help me get a hold on you
Or I will
I thought of myself beside you
Take me into your skin
Oh, Sweet Mary of Silence
Oh, Sweet Mary of Silence
We have a steady confusion
You're looking at fear
It doesn't seem like the first time
You walked out in a hurry
I look in
In your window
To check my head in your pane
My last thoughts
They come to me
I can't take the pain
Oh, Sweet Mary of Silence
Oh, Sweet Mary of Silence
Help me walk with you
To the sky in ?
Shuddering in myself...myself
Oh where
Oh where
Oh where
Sweet Mary of Silence
Sweet Mary of Silence
Sweet Mary of Silence
04 Five String Serenade (04:24)
This is my five string serenade
Beneath the water we've played
And while I'm playing for you
It could be raining there too
This is my five string serenade
Beneath the water we've played
And while I'm playing for you
It could be raining there too
And on my easel I drew
While I was thinking of you
And on the roof of my head
In came my five string serenade
His is my five string serenade
Beneath the water we've played
And while I'm playing for you
It might be raining there too
And on my easel I drew
While I was thinking of you
And on the roof of my head
In came my five string serenade
This is my five string serenade
Beneath the water we've played
And though I'm playing for you
It might be raining there too
This is my five string serenade
07 Unreflected (03:42)
Once it's life's fortunate
Isn't this so
The unreflected feeling
Of a shortened flattened soul
The life that cuts the cold
Now is in your past
In our memories
We don't have much to say
We don't have much to say
We don't have much
Follow anybody
Is that what you do
Maybe it transfits to
Don something else to do
Now we know what we'll be in the past
Another story
Another life that's left
Another life that's left
08 Wasted (05:31)
After I stuck my hands
Into your ground
And pulled out somebody else's son
I felt a little unfortunate
A little mistake
I felt like I'd been wasted
All day long
All day long
After I bent myself to my knees
And raised my hands up
Right above my head
I felt a little
A little bright patch
I felt like I'd been wasted
All day long
All day long
After I took my eyes
From the west
And brought myself back
To my place
I felt a little light for a while
A little light stone
I felt like I'd been wasted
All day long
All day long
09 Into Dust (05:36)
Still falling
Breathless and on again
Inside today
Beside me today
Around broken in two
Till your eyes shed
Into dust
Like two strangers
Turning into dust
Till my hand shook
With the way I fear
I could possibly be fading
Or have something more to gain
I could feel myself growing colder
I could feel myself under your fate
Under your fate
It was you
Breathless and tall
I could feel my eyes turning into dust
And two strangers
Turning into dust
Turning into dust
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Other reviews
By Mario
Hope Sandoval whispering to you indolent and aching among the fabric: 'you will end up asleep or in love among the folds of this album'.
If Rock and Roll is dead... this (album) is the moon on its grave, or rather, the reflection of the moon on its grave.
By Jam
Hope Sandoval has an ethereal voice. Not of this world. Intangible and sensual.
'Fade Into You' is just the first track of an (almost) perfect album.
By CosmicJocker
Austere artisans of a silvery and calm psych-pop-rock, hazy and mellow, Mazzy Star manage to concoct sophisticated potions.
'Fade Into You' opens our hearts with a sweet nostalgia for the time that passes relentlessly.