"Atmosphere" doesn't have that problem, since it was filmed well after lead singer Ian Curtis had died, but it mythologizes him in absentia nearly as much as "Fade Into You" does Sandoval.
Aside from Low, who's also playing today, these are the two most consistent bands still playing in the tournament at this point: neither has ever wavered much from their core sound. Joy Division disbanded after two brilliant albums after its singer's suicide. It's perhaps more impressive for Mazzy Star to have maintained the sound by choice. They arrived at the sound you hear here on their second album (though you can also hear them getting close to it on the first one), and stayed there through the third, and then paused...for fifteen years...and suddenly put out a fourth album after those silent years. It was eerie to hear how it sounded: exactly how Mazzy Star has always sounded. One admires that sort of restraint: it speaks of commitment to the one beautiful idea.
It's hard to otherwise compare these songs so as to prognosticate for you. "Fade Into You" finds its transcendence in and from the personal to the mythological. "Atmosphere" seems to speak more directly to an audience beyond the you ("people like you"), and it seems to us to have more to say about the human condition, which is one pretentious phrase. Maybe we'll edit it out in revision—ha ha, nope! "Atmosphere" is the legacy program here so we wouldn't pick against them, but then we also thought R.E.M. would win it in a romp. Mazzy Star seems to resonate with a lot more people in deeper ways than we expected when the month began. How about you?
*
(9) Mazzy Star, "Fade Into You"
vs
(1) Joy Division, "Atmosphere"
Which is sadder, better? Vote by 9am 3/17
Oof. There is a right choice here and I don't think we're going to make it.
ReplyDeleteYeah I hear that. I mean, I dig Mazzy Star, and want to listen to them more often than I do Joy Division, but that's because they ask so much less of me. At least I'm assuming we're on the same page here. Early lead to Mazzy. I wonder if Joy Division's imprint on the culture of sad is fading? Or if, as Rick Moody says, "the best instrument for the music of loss, which is the best of all music, is a woman's voice"?
ReplyDeleteUgh, I cannot believe that Mazzy Star is winning. Your failure to bang Hope Sandoval back in the 90s is not actually sad, fan boys. Nor is this song.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing! I've loved this Mazzy Star song ever since I first heard it, but I've never once thought of it as sad--only sexy. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but in terms of setting the mood I've only ever seen it employed in service of the latter, not the former.
DeleteTo me, it's no contest. Joy Division forever saddest.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Lynn and Tara here: great song, but not even close to Joy Division. But clearly I'm missing something in terms of the love for Mazzy, since it came down to the very last minute.
DeleteI'm late to this second-round party, but I'll weigh in anyway: I'm glad Joy Division advanced, and I'll save my bullets for them in the next round against PJ Harvey. But here goes my defense of Mazzy.
ReplyDeleteI missed the the opportunity to bang Hope Sandoval in the 1990s. Long story short, I had made this promising arrangement to hook up with her through an AOL chatroom, “Alone at Home.” I remember her username was “-=xXxMazzy_HopeXx=-”—a fashionable moniker at the time. She said she'd been pining hard for someone like me. If only we could meet... That was all I needed. I searched AltaVista for two hours to find an affordable flight to LAX before NetZero just dropped. Probably my sister picking up the phone to call her Canadian boyfriend, Brice. The guy was a real a-hole, and nearly 20 years her elder besides. Anyhow, by the time I could dial back up, of course Hope was gone, presumably stricken with grief at my abrupt disconnection. I idled in Alone at Home for weeks after that, but never saw -=xXxMazzy_HopeXx=- again. My throat still tightens when I hear that AOL guy announce his smug, matter-of-fact “Goodbye.” Just too painful knowing what could have been.
So, “Fade Into You” is what I'm left with. If that's a crime, haul me away to jail.
While you're too late to affect the outcome of the vote, you're not too late to disambiguate some qualities of the matchup and the vote. This is art, y'all, and thus we shall discuss it using the literary present tense, because I think (or perhaps just hope) that this news stays news.
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