A Reined-In Ride Through Ronstadt Country; Mazzy’s Fuzzy Dreamland

MAZZY STAR

“So Tonight That I Might See”

Capitol

* * * 1/2

It’s 3:37 in the morning. Never mind what your watch says. Whenever you listen to this album it’s 3:37 in the morning. This is music that comes from--or conjures--a near-hallucinogenic, somnolent fog, as Hope Sandoval huskily whispers dreamy images that just barely penetrate consciousness, and Dave Roback’s fuzzy guitar snakes in and out of dark corners.

There’s nothing fancy involved--it’s hard to figure why this low-tech, seemingly improvised follow-up to the duo’s hypnotic 1990 debut, “She Hangs Brightly,” took more than three years to complete. Basically it’s a swirl of voice, guitars and occasional organ, all treated with echo and fuzztone, moving at a clip roughly that of a sleeper’s heartbeat.

As such, this may well be the best psychedelic blues album since Cream curdled, though it’s not really blues in the traditional sense, and comparisons to the Velvet Underground and Cowboy Junkies are more obvious. In any case, it may be the culmination of the misnamed L.A. “paisley underground” scene of the early ‘80s and is far more narcotic and hypnotic than anything the whole techno-trance universe has digitally blipped up to date.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).