"Fade Into You" (Mazzy Star)

Call it shoegazer.  Call it neo-psychedelic.  (I'm never one for cramming music into categories.)  Whatever you want to call their music, few could match the sedate, ethereal quality of Santa Monica, CA-based Mazzy Star in the early 1990s.  The band, which in reality is more of a duo consisting of vocalist/instrumentalist Hope Sandoval and instrumentalist/producer David Roback with a varying array of backing musicians, was able to blend the softer side of The Velvet Underground (think: "Sunday Morning," "Femme Fatale," and "Pale Blue Eyes") with the sun-bleached sound of Southern California.  Although, to clarify, theirs isn't the sound of jeeps on the beach or surfers hanging ten; it's the sound of bonfires on dark, chilly beaches with just a hint of a moon to illuminate the endless ocean.
"Fade Into You" from the 1993 album So Tonight That I Might See is probably the most famous and well-crafted of Mazzy Star's songs.  It seems to be about loving someone who is in too dark a place to truly and fully return the emotion.  It's also a very sensuous song.  The lush reverb on the track and quality of Sandoval's voice create this dreamy atmosphere that is--dare I say it--incredibly sexy.  What makes the song so sexy is that it's not about doin' it; it's about longing to share a part of someone on a deeper plane.  This seems to be a subtlety that has been lost in the past decade in music; somehow, "sexy" became less about intrigue and passion and more about "let me shake my scantily-clad ass in your face."  I miss the days of smoldering desire à la Mazzy Star, Chris Isaak, and Janet's "That's the Way Love Goes."  **sigh**