Mazzy Star: "Common Burn"/"Lay Myself Down"

Don't know about you, but I'm not one to automatically get a fan boner when I hear a long dormant band is getting back together to tour. I need new material before I can get really excited.  Look, we'd all like to say we saw the Velvet Underground or Led Zeppelin, but face it: seeing those bands in 2011 doesn't in any way make up for missing them during their 60s/70s peak.  It's a false check mark off your "to do" list.

Mazzy Star is doing this reunion thing right.  For all intents and purposes the band is Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback, and though neither is really old enough to be burnt out or passed their prime on the live stage necessarily, I think reunion tours sans new material are really too commonplace to get worked up over.  I'd rather the Cars get back together and make a so-so album - easily one of the minor entries in their catalog - than for the Police to tour incessantly but not manage to eek out a single new track out of it.

Of course this ethos can always backfire if the band fails to build on old chemistry and just flat out embarrasses themselves on their new album (a lot of 70s/80s punk bands fall prey to this) but based on the two cuts leaked so far this sounds like a legit comeback effort... neither song is overtly catchy enough to make for a likely hit single but each has subtle charms that invite repeat listening.