Attention vinyl collectors: The reunited Mazzy Star — David Roback of Rain Parade and Opal plus singer Hope Sandoval — next week will release Seasons of Your Day, their first new album in 17 years, and distribution company INgrooves has hooked us up with a purple test pressing of the record to give away to one lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader.
TO ENTER: Drop a comment at the bottom of this post naming your favorite Mazzy Star song — and offer up a few words as to why you think it’s so great. Oh, and if you’re viewing this on the Slicing Up Eyeballs app, you may e-mail your entry to info@slicingupeyeballs.com.
RULES: Contest is open to entrants worldwide. We’ll take entries until 5 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 27. After that point, we’ll select a winner at random and contact him/her via e-mail. One entry per person.
Mazzy Star’s Seasons of Your Day is due out Tuesday. If you haven’t heard it yet, we’ve got the full album streaming here on the site. The band also has announced a North American tour this fall.
UPDATE: The contest is now closed and a winner has been notified via email. Thank you all for entering and sharing your thoughts about Mazzy Star.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Stream: Mazzy Star, ‘Seasons of Your Day’ — first new album in 17 years
- Mazzy Star announces North American tour in support of first new album in 17 years
Mary of Silence. So moody and door-sy.
Can’t wait to hear new Mazzy Star.
My favorite Mazzy Star song is “Ghost On The Highway”. As with most Mazzy Star songs, the guitar riff is spot-on and it evokes long dusty roadtrips across the desert.
It’s “Ghost Highway.” However, “Ghost on the Highway” is a great Gun Club song.
Fade Into You, of course.
The music, vocals and lyrics are just perfect. It represents a specific time in my life, and every time I hear the song, I am magically transported there again.
I know it’s obvious, but Fade Into You.
I know it would be way cooler if I picked some deep album cut but I don’t care. I like “Fade Into You” because it makes me feel sad and powerful at the same time.
Although I love the popular “Fade Into You” , “Into Dust” is my absolute favorite Mazzy Star song . It is a gorgeous , haunting song . The lyrics are beautiful ,the arrangement spot on and her voice grabs me by my heart . This song is perfection.
Halah is my favorite Mazzy Start song. A friend put it on and it’s the first song I heard. I was hooked on the band instantly and was lucky to see them several times in Chicago throughout the 90s.
Star not Start
Blue Light
It’s best combination of serene and sexy. Like stripping down on a cold day and getting into bed with someone you love.
Into Dust.
Fade into you. Gives me shivers down my spine every time I hear it. Very much looking forward to their new record.
“Fade Into You.” Sorry to be obvious, but that’s the standout track, in my opinion. Everything that band does has a sexy, sleepy vibe, but “Fade Into You” gets all that across with the concision of a pop song.
FADE INTO YOU … its an absolutely beautiful song, and it reminds me of when I met my love, Tree!
She’s my baby…love that song.
Be My Angel.
I was 16 when “She Hangs Brightly” was released on Roughtrade. My young ears had heard no voice as soft and soulful as Hope’s and her straightforward demands of her lover – “be my angel because you love me… Be my angel because you need me… be my angel, treat me right..” Resonated to my very core. It’s a lullaby for love.
I have to go with “California” – it’s got the downtempo beauty that is a Mazzy Star staple, but the minor chord structure and the high-lonesome tone take me on a wistful, solitary drive through a lonely Southwestern desert landscape. Music this visual is rare – and this track is a stellar example of that.
Blue Light – I like its bluesy guitar riffs and Hope Sandoval voice against it. Looking forward to their new album.
Fade Into You
If I had to pick a favorite Mazzy Star song, it’d probably be Disappear from Among My Swan. The bleak vibe is just perfect, and Roback’s Sterling Morrison-like lead guitar on it is just superbly understated. It’s one of the few rock songs I think of where the rhythm guitar is all over-driven and the lead is clean.
Fade Into You. Just a great pop song.
I really love Unreflected. Such a great sounds.
Fade Into You
I have to say Fade into you as well, it introduced me to them, and has such a haunting quality.
“Halah”. Loved this band from way back and the new album sounds great! I’d love to win this on vinyl!
Can’t be anything other than Fade Into You…
And it seems like we’re in pretty good company picking that one.
It’s so freaking huge no one cares if it is an obvious choice.
Her song On the Low is a very sensual song…great for cuddling, smooching or more.
Fade into you.
‘Mary of Silence’. Just knocked me dizzy when I first heard it. It out-Morrisons Jim Morrison.
Into Dust. One of the most haunting tracks ever. Every time I listen to it I have to stop whatever I’m doing. Totally engrossing.
She’s My Baby. The vibe of this song is just amazing!
Fade Into You, many good remembrances connected with this song
one of my favorites? around my smile. from bavarian fruit bead actually. hope’s voice sends me to the moon and back–every time. can’t wait for this new album…on vinyl!
Ride It On
She’s My Baby, an ethereal song that stays with me for hours.
“Halah” is like a Velvet Underground song on 45 RPM. Really sums up their sound.
I concur.
“She’s My Baby” – I got it on a mix tape in the ’90s, and it makes me painfully nostalgic. I didn’t think I could like another one of their songs more than “Fade Into You” (the only one I’d heard at the time!), but “She’s My Baby” really did it for me…still does. Turned me into a huge fan.
into the dust….This song just makes me wonder about life and death and makes me feel calm about it all.
Fade Into You. Bet there are some young folks out there who owe their existence to this song.
I dig “Flowers in December” for its feelings of regret.
My favorite Mazzy Star song is ‘Roseblood.’
The eerie, dark guitar chords shroud this beautiful song in a dense, heavy fog, underscored by Hope’s sleepy musings on a mysterious woman and the “secrets in her lipstick mouth.”
What secrets they may be, I have no idea, but I just fade away when I sit back, listen, and imagine….
‘hair and skin’, cause it’s a hidden gem.
Live in Black Sessions (1993): http://youtu.be/k6SjdN6FOyg
I was only 3 years old when She Hangs Brightly was released & 6 when So Tonight… was released. Mazzy Star was one of the bands I discovered in my teens & quickly became a favorite. Hope’s haunting vocals always move me. Halah is probably my favorite song. I’m a pretty nerdy record collector so this test pressing would be a jem to add to my collection :)
Fade Into You, it’s a perfect song for falling in love.
It’s difficult to choose one, however “Give You My Lovin'” for it’s beautiful simplicity, Hope’s ethereal vocals, & the vibe.
Been waiting to find someone who agreed with my choice. Thought about it and listened for a week now. ‘When I see you, I wanna kiss you but I know that ain’t right so I ask if I can hold you. Oh babe, I need you so bad. Oh babe I only want to see you… glad.’
Still love Blue Flower. Saw them open for Cocteau Twins the same year.
I saw that show/tour. Marvelous!
Blue Light – Lilting, gorgeous, eternal
This seems like an almost impossible excercise. One favorite??? But, right now, I guess I would have to say it’s “Look On Down From The Bridge.” Just such a hauntingly beautiful album closer.
Fade Into You, it was the first song my wife and I ever danced to
It’s “Fade Into You”. Not because it is the most popular, but it was playing when I met my wife and it’s “our song”. So there.
Into Dust!
Halah…perfect opening to a nearly perfect album.
“Bells Ring”- especially the live version. Great melody in this one that builds up from a soft beginning.
I have to say Fade Into You. It reminds me of my husband, when he was my boyfriend, and we were just kids. We lost sight of each other for ten years or so, and somehow ended up back together and now we’ve been married for seven years. This song has always made me think of him.
Disappear. I love the slow, breezy lead guitar part.
Fade Into You, so sublime…
For years it was Bells Ring, but after streaming the new album, it’s California!
Fade into You is my wedding song
Five String Serenade
It’s like a beautiful poem set to music. The song is completely stripped down yet utterly hypnotizing!
” fade into you”…I don’t care if it was the hit. It’s just one of the most beautiful haunting songs ever written.
Favorite song right now is California. The song makes me a think of my own life travels. Quite a nice surprise to see them release a new album.
It has to be Fade Into You. It’s pretty much a perfect song.
make-out music + vinyl = two happy people.
I really love “Halah”. Very catchy and fun. Should have been a hit as big as “Fade Into You”
Fade Into You. It was the first time I heard Hope Sandoval’s voice.
yeah, Fade Into You for sure. Easily top 10 songs of all time for me. Woozy and heavy and beautiful.
“Halah” from She Hangs Brightly. You can hear heartbreak in Hope’s voice.
Halah from She Hangs Brightly. Interstellar honky tonk vibes. Love it.
By My Angel, just because.
I love the track “Ghost Highway.” It’s simple, spare, and (obviously) haunting. It’s an appropriate bridge between Opal and Mazzy Star.
Blue Flower- it has such a cool groove sound nd is so different than anything I’ve heard!
Gonna Bake My Biscuits or Halah.
Halah. it’s just a perfect song. simple and beautiful.
Fade Into You. I know it’s an easy pick – but it’s the definition of lush music. So beautiful.
Fade Into You…reminds me of dancing with an old love…one I won’t ever see again
Ghost Highway. Creepy and simultaneously sexy. Sort of sums up the best of that era.
Mary of silence, fade into you. Streamed the new album here though and it’s amazing too.
Roseblood – the lyrics, Hope’s vocals, the guitar – everything is spot on, love this song so much.
my favorites are songs she does with others, like “Perfume” by The Jesus and Mary Chain. i really like hearing artists outside their element. all of the Warm Inventions lps are great too.
“blue light” is my favorite mazzy star song… it’s calm and relaxing and reminds me of a lot of late nights in college listening to that album.
Free is my favorite song. It just takes me to a different place. Beautiful lyrics.
Hala is my favorite mazzy star song.
Hala is my favorite mazzy star song. I love the way hope sings on that track.
‘Roseblood.’ It sounds like the velvety fuzziness of curling up in a lover’s arms on a rainy afternoon. Absolutely delicious.
Halah… The beat/canter of Hope’s voice is unreal on Halah. And for me, at 21 years old in 1994, Halah was one of those special few songs that injected happiness into a kid who had just lost his first girlfriend. The ‘over you now’ lyric was like medicine to young confused me. I love when a singer can pour their heart out in a song, and even when some of the lyrics are sad, they manage to create an uplifting feeling through the beat of the singer’s voice. With Halah, Hope nailed that special mix of heartfelt emotion and uplifting feeling at the same time.
Thank you Mazzy Star.
Fade Into You…It would be a ridiculously conformist pick if it wasn’t such a perfect song. It transports me back to my younger days (LOL-I’m only 34, but still)
‘Ride it on’ is my fav b/c it was the first I’d ever heard from her.
Into Dust – Dreamy and hypnotic. One of those songs that could last for hours and you wouldn’t notice.
That would have to be “blue light”
From the moment the organ fades in, there is no
question this is one of the best songs ever!
I know it’s not an original answer, but “Fade Into You”. It’s a classic for a reason!
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say ‘Fade Into You’ ;)
Fade Into You. Obvious choice, but so awesome that even J Mascis had to cover it.
Halah – based on seeing them play it live at the Fillmore in San Francisco years ago.
Fade Into You – we danced to this song at our wedding
Fade into you. Love the music video with the Santa Fe trains of the 90’s that are long gone.
I’m Sailin’
it makes me think of when my girlfriend and I first met:)
Gotta go with “I’m Sailin” – such an evocative song that takes me to New Orleans on a gloomy afternoon. Such a unique sound that really stood out in the early 90’s alt-rock landscape…
I saw Mazzy Star at the club Gino in Stockholm in november of 1996. Felt sweet shivers down my spine when Hope Sandoval sang “Look on down from the bridge”. A truly amazing concert.
Fade into you.
I found that tape in a parking lot after a show in a small town on Vancouver island when i was 13 or so. It was the prefect way to discover that band, that song really conjures the ambivalence of adolescence for me, the wanting to disappear, but also the obsessiveness of loosing yourself in other people.
‘So tonight that I might see’ because it is the queen of mood setting.
Fade Into You. Besides loving this track, I would also play this song every time my son would wake up when he was a baby. Hope’s voice and arrangement always did the trick of easing my son back to his dream space.
Take Everything, because after listening to it has taken everything out of me.
Take Everything, because after listening to it, it has taken everything out of me.
Fade Into You. Was one of the best tracks of one of the first cassettes mixtapes I’ve recorded to my wife in 1994.
It’s always a debate between “Ghost Highway” and “Blue Light” for me. “Highway” has that eerie twang, it sets the perfect stage for late night driving. “Blue Light” – that organ, Sandoval’s vocals = perfection.
Thanks for the opportunity.
“Fade Into You”. I heard this is a cool little restaurant and spent days trying to figure out who did this song. Finally found out- and it was worth the effort tracking down this track!
so glad so many also named fade into you, because as much as i do like most of their material, this really is the pinnacle. a perfect song.
Five String Serenade -aside from being such a beautiful song, it gives me the opportunity to catch my breath and find some space to relax. It releases some of the tension allowing me to continue on.
Happy Nightmare Baby… oh, wait.
Mazzy Star only had good songs I can’t pick one.
Fade Into You :)
“Ghost Highway”…the guitar is so scuzzy and sleazy sounding, and Hope’s singing is rawer and more forceful than usual..plus it sounds like it could’ve been on Opal’s “Happy Nightmare Baby”
Hate to be so obvious, but FADE INTO YOU is a perfect song.
Fade into you – Always soothes the sole when calming the storm
‘Into Dust’ – It’s timeless but still takes me right back.
Tough call between “Ride It On” and “Ghost Highway” but will go with “Ride It On” as it was the first song of theirs I heard and reminds me of the early days of college radio where I live.
“Give you my lovin” is my favorite song. I love She Hangs Brightly, a perfect record for a rainy night. The past is a strange place.
I also possibly could be fading…Into Dust
As many others will probably post – Fade Into You. It’s such a great bit of writing and sometimes that first taste is the sweetest.
“Before I Sleep” from She Hangs Brightly.
lovely ending to a great first album, since then unsurpassed. I had the luck of seeing both Opal lineups with Kendra Smith and Hope Sandoval before they became Mazzy Star. I have a deep love for both bands, each bringing me a different kind of aural pleasure, and many recollections of love, loss and endless affection.
‘Into Dust’ – it’s just hauntingly beautiful. One of those songs you want playing on the soundtrack to your life.
Blue Flower. I’ve just loved it for so long…
‘Into Dust’ (from the album So Tonight That I Might See) – it’s just hauntingly beautiful!! One of those songs you want playing on the soundtrack to your life.
Fade Into You. It’s her voice.
I like Cry, Cry. I melt every time I hear it.
Blue flower. I think it is a bit grittier than a lot of their other stuff. Reminds me a bit of Rain Parade.
ghost on the highway, it flat out rocks.
‘Happy.’ It is the sister song to ‘Disappear’ and has a great somber sense of redemption. The guitar and percussion are magical.
Five String Serenade. Moves me in every way. Plus one of the few songs I can play on guitar.
Into Dust, no question.
Nary Of Silence – the voice – those slight hesitations – Golden!
My favorite song is “Fade in to you” it’s a perfect marriage of words & music, not to mention her voice is so intoxicating. I can’t help getting swept away everytime I hear it.
Halah, it’s an anagram! I wonder if the song can be played backwards? But I also really love the JAMC duet Sometimes Always.
Fade Into You, because it’s a great song!
“Mary Of Silence” I love the droney organ, transcendental voice and that screehie, treated guitar. Simply majestic.
“Fade into you”..such a classic tune.
My favorite Mazzy song is the b-side acoustic version of ‘Bells Ring’ because, for me, it captures the folk-rock that lies underneath all of their music perfectly. Almost pastoral in the way it unfolds. Just perfect.
Fade Into You…just an absolute 90’s indy pop nugget!
Fade Into You, of course.
The music, vocals and lyrics are just perfect. It represents a specific time in my life, and every time I hear the song, I am magically transported there again.
BLUE FLOWER. Best cover ever of this song. Upbeat, sad and a slow tease at the same time; nothing compares. As shy as Hope is, this song seemed to personify her. Pale Saints version was, well, pale compared to Mazzy’s version.
“Ghost Highway” because its one of their only fast songs
I wonder how anyone can pick another one but ‘Fade Into You’? It is just just just P E R F E C T!
Fade into you. What else?
Look on Down From the Bridge was always one of my Mazzy Star songs. It poetically brought a great album to a close and what I thought (until now, thankfully) a great band to an end too. Can’t wait for this new album!
“Fade Into You”. Sheer beauty. And with just a few notes. It’s absolutely brilliant to make such a beautiful song with so few.
Yeah, I know it’s already the most popular selection in these comments, but I’m going with Fade Into You as well. I made a Pandora station from that song that I always play on Sunday mornings while I have my coffee and read the newspaper.
I also liked Hope Sandoval’s other band, the Warm Inventions.
I love Blue Light. Her vocals are best there
“Fade Into You” Just for that melty, dreamy, buttery quality…..
fade into you, it defines their sound.
Halah does it for me. Sexy, seductive and sad. A song for breakups.
I have to say “Lay Myself Down” is a pretty sweet jam. It’s got a real Zeppelin-y feel to it.
‘Halah’. It’s great to perform as a man or a woman.. or a duet.
Fade Into You – it’s just so warm and fuzzy.
Fade Into You – amazing song, it always reminds me of college, 4am, after a night out
Fade Into You – just about the perfect ballad. Never fails to get me!
New Mazzy – terrific
Halah. Remember seeing the video on 120 min and I was hooked
“Flowers in December” I’ve always loved the lyrics, and it sounds beautiful live.
“Into Dust” was my favorite song of that album in the early nineties. I used to walk home from a job in NYC at 4am, and had that song on my (ahem) Discman. (It was early 90’s). Then the video game Call to War 3 used it, and it took a surreal take for me. Hope has the best voice and I cant wait for the new album and tour. Welcome back!
Roseblood-
this was the song playing when I walked away from the love of my life.
Hello Slicing
My favourite Mazzy Star track, although on another day I may have chosen something else given how many of their songs I love, is she’s my baby – the dark, minor chord movement of the main riff; the simple, direct drumming; Hope’s almost drawled lyrics. This is a song I return to again and again. It touches on a darkness that runs through all three of the older albums, and which I have always felt was the most creative and interesting of their output.
As I said, on another day I could have chosen something else – mary of silence or she hangs brightly to name a couple. Seeing Mazzy Star live in London a few years ago was a treat as they not only played the more obvious ‘hits’, but also considered fans like me who appreciate their darker reaches.
All the best, Mackerelage
Ride It On. I’m glad I’m not the only one who loves this song, but I’m not surprised. Just a great, great vocal that splits he night.
Bells Ring, because it’s the perfect late night song. It creates an atmosphere, which lingers within you long after.
Take Everything – it builds up to a such a powerful and moving song.
“Roseblood”
Capture a smile and then that’s all: mystically sad words
“Flowers in December” perfectly arranged nostalgia.
“Into Dust”. When they performed it live, the entire place was perfectly silent. That was the only time I’ve ever heard such a perfect silence from the crowd at a concert. Then again, “So Tonight…” was so perfectly loud…
Others have listed lots of their great songs but I will name one I haven’t seen mentioned…
Rhymes of an Hour from the Among My Swan album. Haunting and beautiful, this tune moves me to another place.
Blue Light, so lovely and languid. It’s dancing with my darling at the Roadhouse after midnight, sitting at the beach on a cold January day, or just sitting alone reminiscing more than one should.
“Into Dust”, because it sounds like winter.
“Bells Ring”
The angelic voice of Sandoval to raise all the heavens ……….
“BLUE LIGHT” I think that’s my favorite Mazzy moment. For personal reasons, of course. I throw that on some nights, played louder than normal; and it’s like a time machine back to 1994. I still can’t quite believe that they’ve really come back. Now the real question is: who’s next? I hope The Sundays are next. New material from them is long overdue.
Fade Into You
Take Everything has always been one of my most favorite. The way the song progresses, William Reid’s guitar, the overall feel is simply amazing.
Look On Down From The Bridge – part Velvet Underground, Part Leonard Cohen, Part Love but have you ever heard a better tune used on the closing credits of a Sopranos episode? Pure lovely gorgeousness!
“Wasted”, do I need to even explain why? It’s so bluesy and dark and ugh just so awesome!
“California”, always reminds me on the traffic jams in L.A.
‘Hair and Skin’
It was an extra track on the cd single of flowers in December. Just sublime…
Fade Into You, obvious choice but such a dreamy song that never gets old
One of the great voices. Glad to hear they’re back.
Fade into U
“Into Dust”
Hi slicing up eyeballs
“She Hangs Brightly” – reasons being the black heart of mine will never forget when my first love walked away into the evening of my despair, still trying to get over her somehow…
All Your Sisters
Hope’s dreamy vocals accompanied by the slow, introverted quality of the music make this track a sleepwalk amongst the rest of the tracks on the album Among My Swan, and my favourite by them.
I must submit, Fade Into You…
Give me your lovin’
Ride It On
It’s the perfect Sunday morning song. Lazy, languid and gorgeous, with Hope’s voice dripping like golden honey into the perfect cup of tea.
Fade Into YOu : Best guitar that Syd Barrett never played
“Blue Light” Like a lot of their songs, it’s very hypnotic. It also reminds me of specific relationship I had back in the 90’s.
“Into Dust” Hope Sandoval has the voice of an angel and this song is just pure perfection. It captures the very essence of loss.
HAPPY from “Among My Swan”, the atmosphere around!!! the stars shine in a dark room with just one window that brings light of happiness” love that song!
Fade into You…first song I heard by them, just resonates. The first time you hear a song can be pretty magical.
Fade Into You, their masterpiece
My favorite song is probably “So That Tonight I Might See”, though I love all of their songs.
I really love all of there songs but my favorite song is Halah circa 1994. I really dig how Hope is so introverted as a performer. It makes her more mysterious and genuine. Also how she doesn’t want fame or attention. They both are rad! Can’t wait to see them at The Wiltern in LA. There vinyl will definitely be added to my collection.
“baby won’t you change your mind?”
Blue Light – This song has a mellow sadness to it.
“happy” – It’s so great because it is one of those timeless songs that when you listen to you think of the person that you love or loved. absolutely brilliant.
“Bells Ring” because the cadence in Hope’s voice really resonates with me in this song.
there’s so many but i’d have to say “Unreflected” today – i can hear VU i can hear Led Zep but mostly simple beauty truth and …hope.
‘Halah’, because it’s the first one I heard and it’s a perfect track.
17 years…. nearly as long as MBV! looking forward to this album
Fade Into You-It’s absolutely gorgeous; it has such a wonderful atmosphere to it and all the instruments just fit together to create the perfect mix of sounds.
“Fade into You” – I know it’s such an obvious choice, but it IS pure vocal beauty and the musical accompaniment is basically flawless…
Probably since it was the 1st song I heard it to be ‘Fade Into You’
Into dust.
makes me want to turn
Be My Angel.
The song reminds me of how beautiful it is to be in love, and coping with the aspirations and uncertainties a relationship has in store. Playfully testing the waters…, pushing the boundaries… We all want love, but we don’t want it the easy way, do we? It’s a game!
I think “Into Dust” is the best track by Mazzy Star. The way the vocals hang over the negative space of the stripped down acoustic always gives me goosebumps. A great song like Into Dust will take the listener’s mind to unpredicted places.
Blue Flower (yes, I know it’s a cover – but they certainly made it their own). And is if their version isn’t enough, The Pale Saints covered it a few years later and made me love it all over again.
“Fade Into You” is one of those songs that stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it.
OK, contest is now closed. Thank you all for entering and sharing your thoughts. A winner has been randomly selected and notified via email.
Lay Myself Down is my new favorite Mazzy Star tune because of the amazingly beautiful Steel Guitar playing and the feeling that it evokes. Its a perfect song and as good as anything they have ever done.