"Flowers in December" is a song by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star, released in October 1996 as the lead single from their third studio album Among My Swan. It was written by Hope Sandoval and David Roback, and produced by Roback.[2] "Flowers in December" reached No. 40 on the UK Singles Chart and remained in the top 100 for two weeks. A music video was filmed to promote the single, directed by Kevin Kerslake.[3]
Critical reception
Upon its release, Music & Media named "Flowers in December" their "single of the week" and commented, "David Roback and Hope Sandoval's dreamy acoustics have become even more poppier with gorgeous melodies, plenty of minor chord changes and a delicate violin whispering in the background."[4] Kristy Barker of Melody Maker picked it as one of the magazine's "single[s] of the week" and stated that it "nearly manage[d]" to "move [her] as much" as Mazzy Star's "Fade into You" and "Blue Flower". She continued, "Strings that sound like sighs back Sandoval's forlorn [voice], but then a great honking mouth organ comes in and spoils it all". She was more positive towards the "Delicatessen-like" "Hair and Skin", noting she "fell in love" with the track, which is "all fuzzy guitars and stop-start minor-chord organ, and Hope, sounding more desolate than ever".[5]
In a review of Among My Swan, Chris Molanphy of CMJ New Music Monthly commented, "...amid Hope Sandoval's wispy voice and David Roback's plinking guitars, there's a brightness trying to emerge. You hear it in the chimes that ring over "Disappear," and in Sandoval's wistful harmonica on "Flowers in December."[6] In a 2013 retrospective on the band's career, Emily Mackay of New Musical Express considered the song "lovely but not the album's best moment".[7]
