Mazzy Star - Fade Into You - Lyrics Meaning
Mazzy Star, a female fronted alternative slow core band, achieved their greatest success in 1994 with the single "Fade Into You." The song, with lyrics by vocalist Hope Sandoval and music by guitarist David Roback, peaked on the Billboard Modern Rock charts at number three. "Fade Into You" was also a Top 50 single in both the United States and the U.K. The video was prominently featured on MTV, and the song has been featured in movies such as Angus, Nicholas Cage's 2005 Lord of War, Guy Ritchie's Swept Away, and countless television shows such as Alias, Desperate Housewives, Roswell, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls and CSI Miami.
The song has different meanings to different people. For most, it's a reminder of an era of alternative music that defined a generation post Seattle-grunge. Memories of teenage make out sessions, slow dances, and romantic courting. Some people take the lyrics as words coming from a shy wallflower type that is finally confessing their feelings to the object of his or her affection.
The lyrics are most widely interpreted as a bittersweet story of falling in love with someone that is slightly damaged and incapable of living up to expectations. Hope Sandoval hauntingly sings of trying to connect with her partner on both an emotional and physical level; until, she begins to realize that this person can't give back. They aren't quite positioned where they need to be in life. You can hear the disappointment and heartbreak in the way she sings her lyrics.
She has in many ways given herself to whomever she sings to. They have become everything to her and she's lost herself in the process. She's faded into him and has discovered that she's slightly damaged as a result.
The verse "I think it's strange you never knew" seems to suggest that this person hasn't even noticed Hope's heartache or her true feelings because their soul is damaged, their world may be dark, and they're self-centered and lacking a certain depth. It's as if this person fails to realize that the couple aren't the same two people they once were. He never noticed that she's morphed into something to appease him rather than something true to herself.
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