“Quiet, the Winter Harbour” by Mazzy Star
Perhaps the easiest way to make sense out of “Quiet the Winter Harbour” is by first presuming that the vocalist is singing to someone akin to a romantic interest. Maybe they have broken up or in any event are not as close as they used to be.
And whereas the titular metaphor, which is touched upon in the chorus, isn’t that easy to understand, what it is premised on is the singer asserting that she’s “sinking”. This assertion is something we will take as a poetic way of stating that she’s in some type of depressed state (also taking the word “winter”, which is not mentioned in the lyrics, into consideration).
Meanwhile, it is the addressee who possesses “a harbor”, i.e. the wherewithal to save the vocalist from “sinking”. Accordingly, the thesis sentiment revolves around the singer’s desire to get closer to the person. And again, since she uses the word “still” so much, it reads as if this is someone she already knows quite well but has lost contact with for an extended period of time – a theory that is buttressed especially by the nature of the second verse.
Mazzy Star and “Quiet, the Winter Harbour”
Mazzy Star, a rock band from Santa Monica, hasn’t, as of the writing of this post, dropped a track in approximately four years. Their first album, “She Hangs Brightly”, came out in 1990, and “Quiet, The Winter Harbour” was released on 18 April 2018, being part of an EP entitled “Still”.
The two core musicians which held down Mazzy Star throughout its formative years, Hope Sandoval and the late David Roback, are the writers and producers of this song. And apparently the reason this act hasn’t come out with any new music since “Still” would have something to do with the fact that cancer claimed the life of Roback, at age 61, in early 2020.
The “Still” EP
American rock band, Mazzy Star had the EP, “Still” released on the 1st of June, 2018.
The band dedicated the EP to Keith Mitchell and Tom Cashen. The former was a funding drummer of the band and the latter, the band’s stage manager. The pair died in 2017.
“Still” was produced by band members, Hope Sandoval and David Roback. It was released through Rhymes of An Hour, a record label owned by the band.
Co-founder of Mazzy Star, Roback died in February of 2020 making “Still” the band’s final release before his death.
The EP peaked at No.27 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart.
