Mazzy Star guitarist and songwriter David Roback passed away in February at the age of 61, so I wanted to take a look back at their catalog, which has really seemed to earn more respect and more listeners over the past couple decades since their '90s heyday.

Mazzy Star deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Mary Of Silence
2. Ride It On
3. Bells Ring
4. Look On Down From The Bridge
5. Before I Sleep
6. Happy
7. Into Dust
8. Under My Car
9. In The Kingdom
10. She Hangs Brightly
11. So Tonight That I Might See
12. That Way Again
13. Blue Light
14. Things
15. Flying Low
16. Take Everything

Tracks 2, 5 and 10 from She Hangs Brightly (1990)
Tracks 1, 3, 7, 11 and 13 from So Tonight That I Might See (1993)
Tracks 4, 6 and 16 from Among My Swan (1996)
Track 8 from the Deep Cuts EP (2009)
Tracks 9 and 16 from Seasons Of Your Day (2013)
Track 12 from the "I'm Less Here" single (2014)
Track 14 from the Still EP (2018)

Mazzy Star's 4 albums kind of perfectly epitomize the career arc of a '90s alternative band. They had the cult classic indie debut, championed by Kurt Cobain and picked up by a major label for re-release. Then they had the big platinum breakthrough sophomore album, and the less popular but critically acclaimed third album. And many years later after a period of inactivity, a return for the fourth album after they'd been celebrated as an influential touchstone for younger bands.

I often think about how 1994, the year Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" was inescapable, was the moment when mainstream alternative radio sounded the most indie rock that it would ever get. Pavement, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets and Liz Phair all had some of their biggest singles that year, and I was hearing some of those acts for the first time and in fact heard the phrase 'indie rock' for the first time in 1994, so I didn't totally recognize what was going on there next, or that I'd spend the next few years exploring those bands' back catalogs and influences while alt-rock radio became something very different. So I didn't really recognize Mazzy Star as representing a hip underground subculture with their ballad with pianos and slide guitars, but in retrospect "Fade Into You" was really a commercial and creative high point for a particular dream pop/psych rock revival aesthetic that has otherwise usually thrived at an indie level. And certainly Hope Sandoval's voice has this really distinct, haunting quality that few others can really lay claim to.

One thing I didn't realize at the time was that the moderately successful "Fade Into You" follow-up, "Halal," was actually not from the same album, So Tonight That I Might See. Instead, for whatever reason, a 5-year-old track from their debut got promoted to radio. And a lot of their songs have been continued to be resurrected and popularized years later. Their 2 most popular songs besides "Fade Into You" on streaming services are "Into Dust," which charted in 2009 after being featured in multiple commercials, and "Look On Down From The Bridge" has been in several films and episodes of "The Sopranos" and "Rick And Morty." So Tonight That I Might See is definitely the biggest Mazzy Star album, but Among My Swan seems to have a devoted following too, and the highlight "Take Everything" features guitar from William Reid of The Jesus And Mary Chain.

I was amused to see that Mazzy Star released an EP titled Deep Cuts in 2009, so perhaps you got to this page my searching about that release. Anyway, it appears to be some kind of weird thing Capitol Records slapped together long after the band left the label, perhaps to capitalize on the viral popularity of "Into Dust," that actually misspells their name as 'Mazzy Starr' on the crappy-looking cover art. Nonetheless, it does have some good songs, including the "Fade Into You" b-side "Under My Car." It was around that time that Hope Sandoval and David Roback began performing again as Mazzy Star, and released an album, a one-off single, and an EP over the past decade.

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars
Vol. 77: 112
Vol. 78: 2Pac
Vol. 79: Nelly
Vol. 80: Meat Loaf
Vol. 81: AC/DC
Vol. 82: Bruce Springsteen
Vol. 83: Pearl Jam
Vol. 84: Green Day
Vol. 85: George Michael and Wham!
Vol. 86: New Edition
Vol. 87: Chuck Berry
Vol. 88: Electric Light Orchestra
Vol. 89: Chic
Vol. 90: Journey
Vol. 91: Yes
Vol. 92: Soundgarden
Vol. 93: The Allman Brothers Band
Vol. 94: Mobb Deep
Vol. 95: Linkin Park
Vol. 96: Shania Twain
Vol. 97: Squeeze
Vol. 98: Taylor Swift
Vol. 99: INXS
Vol. 100: Stevie Wonder
Vol. 101: The Cranberries
Vol. 102: Def Leppard
Vol. 103: Bon Jovi
Vol. 104: Dire Straits
Vol. 105: The Police
Vol. 106: Sloan
Vol. 107: Peter Gabriel
Vol. 108: Led Zeppelin
Vol. 109: Dave Matthews Band
Vol. 110: Nine Inch Nails
Vol. 111: Talking Heads
Vol. 112: Smashing Pumpkins
Vol. 113: System Of A Down
Vol. 114: Aretha Franklin
Vol. 115: Michael Jackson
Vol. 116: Alice In Chains
Vol. 117: Paul Simon
Vol. 118: Lil Wayne
Vol. 119: Nirvana
Vol. 120: Kix
Vol. 121: Phil Collins
Vol. 122: Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Vol. 123: Sonic Youth
Vol. 124: Bob Seger
Vol. 125: Radiohead
Vol. 126: Eric Church
Vol. 127: Neil Young
Vol. 128: Future
Vol. 129: Say Anything
Vol. 130: Maroon 5
Vol. 131: Kiss
Vol. 132: Dinosaur Jr.
Vol. 133: Stevie Nicks
Vol. 134: Talk Talk
Vol. 135: Ariana Grande
Vol. 136: Roxy Music
Vol. 137: The Cure
Vol. 138: 2 Chainz
Vol. 139: Kelis
Vol. 140: Ben Folds Five
Vol. 141: DJ Khaled
Vol. 142: Little Feat
Vol. 143: Brendan Benson
Vol. 144: Chance The Rapper
Vol. 145: Miguel
Vol. 146: The Geto Boys
Vol. 147: Meek Mill
Vol. 148: Tool
Vol. 149: Jeezy
Vol. 150: Lady Gaga
Vol. 151: Eddie Money
Vol. 152: LL Cool J
Vol. 153: Cream
Vol. 154: Pavement
Vol. 155: Miranda Lambert
Vol. 156: Gang Starr
Vol. 157: Little Big Town
Vol. 158: Thin Lizzy
Vol. 159: Pat Benatar
Vol. 160: Depeche Mode
Vol. 161: Rush
Vol. 162: Three 6 Mafia
Vol. 163: Jennifer Lopez
Vol. 164: Rage Against The Machine
Vol. 165: Huey Lewis and the News
Vol. 166: Dru Hill
Vol. 167: The Strokes
Vol. 168: The Notorious B.I.G.
Vol. 169: Sparklehorse
Vol. 170: Kendrick Lamar

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 7:06 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.