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Sep 27, 2013 Mazzy Star By Alee Karim

It was unlikely that we’d get a sea change in the sound of Mazzy Star. They were always resolutely anachronistic, and that was part of their charm in the first place. The appeal of records like So Tonight That I Might See and Among My Swan was a dreamy, weathered photo quality, an artifact of simpler times retrieved from some Faulknerian attic. Seasons of Your Day certainly doesn’t toy with that formula, reintroducing us to David Roback’s languid slide guitar and Hope Sandoval’s reverb-drenched croon like a favorite pair of shoes.

And yet it still may be too little, too late for a band that went silent in 1996. It certainly doesn’t sound like any influences, musical or otherwise, intervened in the meantime. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but occasionally one can’t help but wonder if any true inspiration managed to make its way into their camp during that time either. There’s an overwhelming lassitude that hinders this collection, and it strikes one as markedly distinct from Mazzy Star’s signature narcotic haze. The latter was charming and engrossing; this is a tad boring.

Those who count themselves amongst the number who consider the return of Hope Sandoval as reason enough for admission alone will be mostly pleased. Mostly, that is, because although her lovely voice is back and intoxicating as ever, most notably on “California,” there’s frankly not enough of it. A lot of this album is filled with the untrimmed blues boogie of a frontier town bar band, and not necessarily the most dexterous one, either. “Flying Low” is a particularly conspicuous culprit, trading on far too much poor-man’s Zeppelin stomp and far too little of Sandoval’s lush narration.

At long last, this album will disappoint few who simply miss Mazzy Star, a sizable number, to be sure. But whereas Portishead returned from its ‘90s exile with a bagful of ideas and envelope-pushing to spare, Mazzy Star are back with precisely what they left with. Not a crime in and of itself, but a band reuniting implies unfinished creative business. In the case of Seasons of Your Day, one strains excessively to imagine what that business might be. (www.facebook.com/MazzyStarOfficial)

Author rating: 4.5/10