Mazzy Star-So Tonight That I Might See (1993)


 

Artist: Mazzy Star

Title: So Tonight That I Might See

Label: Capitol

Format: CD

Cat: CDP 0777 7 98253 2 5

Year of Release: 1993

Country and Year of Edition: US 1993

Sell Price: $6.62 VG+/VG+ 8/9/24

Discogs Last Sold: 8/5/24 VG+/VG+ $4.99

Low: $2.99

Median: $5.56

Average: $7.13

High: $20.41

Current low price: $6.98

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 14

Have/Want: 2517/954

Where Sold: Albany, NY

Time it took to sell:  2 months

Where and When Purchased: facebook marketplace used lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

Mazzy Star, late guitarist Dave Roback's group with vocalist Hope Sandoval was non-stop quality evolving from the band Opal.  Roback had been active before that with The Rain Parade but each band had a slightly different take on the Paisley Underground beginnings.  Commercial-wise this was the bands lone Platinum seller, a slow burn that went Gold over a year after release in October '94, then the million US sales mark certification in April, 1995.  "Fade Into You" just missed the top 40 peaking at #44.   

Given the bands history, their commercial success seems unprecedented but those grunge years post-Nirvana made starts out of some of the 80's college rock underground.  The record really doesn't sound all that slick, but it clearly had an appeal.  I probably cared about the debut She Hangs Brightly and the Opal catalog a bit more than this one and although this is a recent buy and flip, I had bought a copy of this sometime later in the 90's.  I essentially ignored Mazzy Star after that for no good reason.

So this sophomore release doesn't feel like a second record in a traditional sense.  The big hit here is a cover of surprisingly late period Love released around 1992 entitled "Five String Serenade."  The only song to garner a video was the lead track "Fade Into You."

Much of this plays like enjoyable background music.  Listening to it 4 times straight (which I did today) doesn't really change that.   The 6 minute plus track "Mary of Silence" has a nice droning ambient feedback when you realize the album is 15 minutes in when the Love cover kicks in.  Same with the title track that closes the album out.

Sometimes uncompromising finds a mainstream audience.

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