About Today

Mazzy Star, Fade Into You

somesongsconsidered: Ask someone why he or she likes “Fade into You”… you’ll almost always get some kind of memory – “I haven’t heard this in ages,” “this reminds me of…,” or “I have a friend who used to love this song…”  Sure, we all have our own songs with our own personal attachments, but “Fade into You” lends itself well to these recollections.

I was just talking about this song the other day. I had just read Phonogram 2.2 the night before. (For those that don’t know, Phonogram is the awesome comic that fuses music and magic - think “Hellblazer meets High Fidelity,” say the creators. Read more here. It’s one of the best things ever.) The new issue was about “curse songs,” and how there are certain songs that can haunt you for whatever reason - lost loves number one on the list, of course. Author Kieron Gillen talked about how the worst of these are the happy, upbeat numbers that pull everyone in the club onto the dancefloor but leave you doubled over in your booth. And while you can take just about any sad song and twist it to your own masochistic needs, it still takes special circumstances to turn a simply sad song into a curse song.

Getting around to the point, “Fade Into You” is one of my curse songs. I won’t get into the details of why or how (that’s another post for another time), but rest assured that the second I hear the first those first chords strummed, I’m sent to my melancholy place and the best of evenings turns into sober self-examination. I won’t even play it as I’m writing this, for fear of ruining an otherwise decent Wednesday morning. So what’s your curse song, kids?