Reviews

Among My Swan

by Susan Kaplow - 44.1kHz

If Mazzy Star's music has ever ushered you into a dream state or an altered state, you'll be relieved to know that the duo's third album, Among My Swan, is still dosed with songs in the key of near death experience.

Among My Swan, like Mazzy's two previous albums (1990's She Hangs Brightly and 1993's So Tonight I May See), is a countrifried piece of work (thanks to Hope Sandoval's Emmylou Harris-on- acid vocals/whisper) -- perhaps even more than the other two. (Sandoval co-produced this one--maybe that's why).

The first few tracks on Among all have the same lower than-lo-fi drone and they're almost impossible to distinguish from one another. It isn't until you get to the fifth track, "Take Everything," that Sandoval's voice rises a little bit above a monotone, David Roback (the other half of Mazzy) plays some gorgeous, soaring guitar and the duo register a pulse. (Roback's former Dream Syndicate bandmate Steve Wynn has said that Roback's bands "know how to play at three speeds: slow, slower and slowest").

The sixth and seventh tracks, "Still Cold" (where Roback's guitar notes almost sound Garcia-like, spiraling around in the distance) and "All Your Sisters" (where Sandoval blows some very Neil Young-like harmonica and sings some really creepy lyrics--"make the devil feel surprised," "catch me drinking your mind"), might make you consider taking this disc on a road trip (without being afraid that it will make you fall asleep at the wheel).

The first single, "I've Been Let Down," is a "my-heart's-been-stomped-on" song ("I've been let down and I'm still coming round for you")--sad lyrics, weepy harmonica-- nothing much more than that. Unlike "Fade Into You" (Mazzy's surprise hit single from So Tonight That I May See), "I've Been Let Down" won't seem like an oddball choice this time around for modern rock radio (thanks to other ethereal songs like Pearl Jam's "Who You Are" and R.E.M.'s "E-Bow The Letter").

The later half of Among My Swan is where you might (and I mean might) satisfy your distortion jones. Thankfully, on "Roseblood," the ninth track, Roback's guitar gets buzzing. On "Happy," when Sandoval murmers "there's a great big hole in my heart" as she taps her tambourine while Roback's twangs gives her the strength to go on, it's obvious that Mazzy's "Happy" is far from a Keith Richards' romp. (Could the sense-of humor-less Sandoval actually be making a joke here?)

Two funereal-like numbers infused with Mazzy Star' signature, psychotic organ work, close out the disc: "Umbilical" (which sounds exactly like So Tonight's "Mary of Silence") and "Look On Down From the Bridge" (A suicide song? What a surprise!) Among My Swan will either make you grateful that Sandoval and Roback design this kind of incredibly intricate backround music, or it will make you so depressed that you'll immediately want to crank up 311, Goldfinger or any other kind of candy-coated Cali-punk you can get your hands on. You know--the kind of stuff that drives you to Mazzy Star in the first place.