Like a chimera in languorous opposition to earthly indie-rock, Mazzy Star was a beguiling apparition in an age of grubby grunge. Touring rarely and dispensing three-yearly studio albums out of the blue, they were an enigma in an era that rewarded only rock’s growlers, grafters and insatiable self-promoters.

Though they wound up on Capitol Records, their one hit, ’93′s “Fade Into You,” only seemed to define their elusiveness, thanks to David Roback’s hazy acoustic strum and Hope Sandoval’s wispy vocal melody. Mazzy was the kind of band whose music might soundtrack an arty love scene in a Bertolucci movie (as it did in ’96′s Stealing Beauty). And then suddenly they were no more, as sultry Sandoval and gently psychedelic Roback, who were romantically involved in the beginning, went their separate ways.

In the intervening 17 years, their horizontally-inclined sound has become veritably iconic, “inspiring,” to say the least, boy/girl groups like Beach House. According to Roback, they’ve never stopped writing or recording, even while he now resides in Norway and she divides her time between San Francisco and rural Ireland. “We don’t really keep track of time,” she says.

Indeed, on their first record since ’96′s Among My Swan, time often seems to… read more »