"Flowers in December" | ||||
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Single by Mazzy Star | ||||
from the album Among My Swan | ||||
B-side |
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Released | October 21, 1996 [1] | |||
Length | 4:56 | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
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Mazzy Star singles chronology | ||||
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"Flowers in December" is a song by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star, released in October 1996 as the lead single from their third studio album Among My Swan . It was written by Hope Sandoval and David Roback, and produced by Roback. [2] "Flowers in December" reached No. 40 on the UK Singles Chart and remained in the top 100 for two weeks. A music video was filmed to promote the single, directed by Kevin Kerslake. [3]
Upon its release, Music & Media named "Flowers in December" their "single of the week" and commented, "David Roback and Hope Sandoval's dreamy acoustics have become even more poppier with gorgeous melodies, plenty of minor chord changes and a delicate violin whispering in the background." [4] Kristy Barker of Melody Maker picked it as one of the magazine's "single[s] of the week" and stated that it "nearly manage[d]" to "move [her] as much" as Mazzy Star's "Fade into You" and "Blue Flower". She continued, "Strings that sound like sighs back Sandoval's forlorn [voice], but then a great honking mouth organ comes in and spoils it all". She was more positive towards the "Delicatessen-like" "Hair and Skin", noting she "fell in love" with the track, which is "all fuzzy guitars and stop-start minor-chord organ, and Hope, sounding more desolate than ever". [5]
In a review of Among My Swan, Chris Molanphy of CMJ New Music Monthly commented, "...amid Hope Sandoval's wispy voice and David Roback's plinking guitars, there's a brightness trying to emerge. You hear it in the chimes that ring over "Disappear," and in Sandoval's wistful harmonica on "Flowers in December." [6] In a 2013 retrospective on the band's career, Emily Mackay of New Musical Express considered the song "lovely but not the album's best moment". [7]
UK CD1 and 7-inch single [8] [9]
UK CD2 [10]
European maxi-CD single [11]
Mazzy Star
Additional personnel
Chart (1996) | Peak position |
---|---|
Europe (Eurochart Hot 100) [12] | 61 |
Scotland (OCC) [13] | 26 |
UK Singles (OCC) [14] | 40 |
Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Santa Monica, California, from remnants of the group Opal. Founding member David Roback's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Kendra Smith left Opal. The band's current lineup consists of Sandoval, Colm Ó Cíosóig, Suki Ewers (keyboards), and Josh Yenne.
Hope Sandoval is an American singer-songwriter, known as the lead singer of Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. Sandoval has toured and collaborated with other artists, including Massive Attack, for whom she sang "Paradise Circus" on the 2010 album Heligoland and the 2016 single "The Spoils".
She Hangs Brightly is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star. It was released on May 21, 1990, by Rough Trade Records and re-released by Capitol Records later in the year.
So Tonight That I Might See is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star, released by Capitol Records on September 27, 1993 in the United Kingdom, and on October 5, 1993 in the United States.
Among My Swan is the third studio album by American band Mazzy Star, released on October 29, 1996 by Capitol Records. Although Among My Swan did not contain any US Billboard Hot 100 hits like its predecessor, So Tonight That I Might See, this album garnered the band its highest-ranking single on the UK Singles Chart, when "Flowers in December" reached No. 40 in November 1996.
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"Fade into You" is a song by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star from their second studio album, So Tonight That I Might See (1993). The song was written by lyricist Hope Sandoval and composer David Roback, who also served as producer. The song reached number three on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994 and is Mazzy Star's only single to appear on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 44. The song also charted at number 48 on the UK Singles Chart and number three in Iceland.
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"Single-Bilingual" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 11 November 1996 as the third single from their sixth studio album, Bilingual (1996). The track peaked at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. The song is named "Single" on the album version but was retitled "Single-Bilingual" because Everything but the Girl also had a song named "Single", which had been released the previous May. The album version cross-fades with the previous track, "Discoteca", of which both the album and single versions feature an interpolation at the end.
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The discography of American alternative rock band Mazzy Star consists of four studio albums, two EPs, twelve singles and eight music videos. The band was formed in 1989 by vocalist Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback, after the disbandment of Roback's previous band with vocalist Kendra Smith, Opal. Mazzy Star's debut studio album, She Hangs Brightly, was released by Rough Trade Records in 1990, and eventually spawned two singles: "Blue Flower" in 1990 and "Halah" in 1995.
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