Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See (Vinyl LP)

In keeping with the quality of their magical, laconic music, the success of Mazzy Star’s second album, So Tonight That I Might See seemingly came out of nowhere. Eventually going platinum, the record’s unexpected climb to commercial prominence began on the back of the surprise success of its second single, the dreamily atmospheric “Fade Into You,” which rose into the Billboard Top 50 seven months after its parent album first hit the racks in October 1993. Gloriously out of step with the zeitgeist, the introspective So Tonight That I Might See bore scant relation to the grungy guitar records dominating the alt-rock scene. Indeed, “Fade Into You” ironically began its steady ascent up the Billboard chart while the world mourned the death of Kurt Cobain.

The product of ad hoc studio sessions, So Tonight That I Might See made no attempt to hide its rough ‘n’ ready nature, with “She’s My Baby” and the grinding, “Venus In Furs”-esque titular song sounding almost willfully loose. More often than not, however, the album nonchalantly sauntered towards genius, not least on the droning, acid-tinged “Mary Of Silence,” the duo’s skeletal, cello-enhanced cover of Arthur Lee’s “Five String Serenade” and the strung-out blues-rock of the aptly-titled “Wasted.”

1. Fade Into You
2. Bells Ring
3. Mary Of Silence
4. Five String Serenade
5. Blue Light
6. She’s My Baby
7. Unreflected
8. Wasted
9. Into Dust
10. So Tonight That I Might See