Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Hope Sandoval

Bed Head

11:24 / 13.12.03

Hope Sandoval. Is she One Of Us, or One Of Them? Reading through next door’s Chemical Brothers thread reminded me that ‘Asleep FromDay’ really is my favourite Chem.Bros. track, although I’d thought little of it until I recently got this little album called ‘Bavarian Fruit Bread’ which I like a heck of a lot.

But...
Just how long can she do this druggy breathy schtick before it gets old for me? Does she already set your teeth on edge? Is the whole Sandoval phenomenon just a well-connected scenester standing very close to a microphone and flashing her liquid eyes at old men like Bert Jansch? Or is this a genuine talent at work? Is the Mazzy Star back catalogue worth a listen? Any more guest vocals she’s done that really ring your bell? Or, do you have a compelling argument as to why she is the Antichrist’s quiet sister?

uncle retrospective

12:11 / 13.12.03

So tonight that I may see is one of the best albums I own. Into Dust is one of the finest songs recorded.
Her song on the new Death in Vegas is amazing and the live version is sublime.
All this and she's so dreamy.....
sigh.

Jack Fear

12:17 / 13.12.03

Boring. Really.

Not "deatched" or "aloof" in an interesting way a la Sandy Denny or even Beth Orton, just dull. Dull as dishwater.

She sounds bored herself, as if there's somewhere she'd rather be. Hey, Hope--don't let us keep you.

Jack Fear

12:19 / 13.12.03

That said, Bed Head--the whole "Us and Them" thing is soooooooooo over.

Hope Sandoval = one of herself.

Saint Keggers

12:39 / 13.12.03

Hope Sandoval=Best band ever!

I love her music. Perfect for when you're feelling all melancholy.

gergsnickle

14:06 / 13.12.03

I'm with Jack Fear on this one - that Chemical Brothers track is a great one, and there are a few scattered good songs in her own catalogue (Five String Serenade springs to mind), but...

I remember seeing Mazzy Star live in 1993 and Hope Sandoval was oh so bored and annoyed by the whole thing. Don't let us keep you indeed.

rizla mission

16:32 / 13.12.03

Mazzy Star are looovvvelly.

Not really justifiable in terms of musical innovation or ideological agenda or whatever..

But just loooveely.. cos sometimes you want something that just plain sounds nice.. nice like, I dunno, sitting in front of the roaring fire eating a birthday cake or something.. they swoosh and swoon and haze and fade and rise and fall in all the right places.. comfort music or whatever I guess.

As for Ms. Sandoval, well.. she sings kind of like a Greek statue that's come to life.. completely by the book, and I can see why people could interpret her singing as bland, but in it's own way sooo perfect..

Ethan Hawke

16:55 / 13.12.03

Jack White does a cover of Five String Serenade live sometimes. It's quite lovely.

at the scarwash

02:48 / 17.12.03

In a word, no. Boring is a pretty good word to describe what she is, has been, and done. Some of the arrangements for Mazzy Star were pretty good in the way that Healthy Choice frozen dinners can be described as "pretty good," (okay when you're drunk out of your mind, in other words) but they had fuckall to do with Miss Hope. She has a decent voice, but only one mode of singing: supposedly-sulty detachment.

Frank Fress

01:47 / 30.03.04

There is little that compares to the druggy heartache of Mazzy Star. 'Halah' is on par with Patsy Cline at her saddest. She Hangs Brightly is one of my favorite albums of all time and so are the other two and their B-sides.

But...

Minus Dave Roback (+warm inventions) she drifts slowly toward self-parody, paticularly in regard to her lyrics. Oh Dave and Hope patch it up for we are missing you now...

15:58 / 30.03.04

I guess that she's good at doing that one thing that she does. How many albums worth of stuff does that one thing merit though. Maybe one. Maybe just an EP.

Alex's Grandma

20:04 / 31.03.04

Great voice, but I don't know if it's ever been stretched quite as far as it might have been - too many mood pieces maybe, not enough songs.

But I think if she met me, she'd really like me, so, y'know... I'd never actually tell her that.

Add Your Reply