Seasons of Your Day

Although an official press release indicated that material found on the album was recorded from 1997 onwards, several interviews conducted since then indicate that some of the material found on the album was recorded in the early 1990s. The Long Ryders guitarist Stephen McCarthy believes his credit for performing pedal steel guitar on "Lay Myself Down" stems from a session he played with the band in the early 1990s.[1] McCarthy, who auditioned to be a member of Mazzy Star in 1990,[2] confirmed in 2013 that he contributed to the demo recording of the song around the time of his audition, and that he was later asked by Roback to re-record the part in a recording studio "nearly 25 years ago."[1] "Lay Myself Down" was performed live as early as August 1994 in The Garage in Highbury, London.[3] The track also features bass guitar performed by Paul Olguin, who performed bass on several tracks found on the band's debut album, She Hangs Brightly.

The band began work on new material following a tour promoting their previous album Among My Swan in 1997.[4] They recorded several tracks during this period, before Capitol Records began requesting the band move towards "big name" producers. Sandoval responded by requesting to be released from their contract with the label,[5] later stating, "It seemed record companies wanted bands to be creative because they didn't know how to manufacture underground music. We could do our own thing and go at our own pace. But that changed when major labels started wanting bands that would sell 7 million records. They had a formula. And suddenly all these people wanted to come to the studio to keep track of what we were doing and make sure we were following that formula. So we got out."[6]

"Spoon" features guitar work from the late folk musician Bert Jansch,[7] whom the band were first introduced to by Geoff Travis in the mid 1990s, when he was asked to open for the band in The Garage in Highbury, London in 1994.[1] Sandoval confirmed that the song was finally demoed in her apartment in Hampstead in the late 1990s, saying "He came over and we had a few beers and played the song in my living room."[1] The studio version of the track was later recorded in Norway in 2000, during the same sessions where Jansch performed on two tracks from Sandoval's first album with The Warm Inventions, Bavarian Fruit Bread, "Butterfly Mornings" and "Charlotte".[1] The title track contains a contribution from the band's former violinist Will Glenn (aka William Cooper), who died from cancer in 2001.[2]

The band returned briefly in 2000 for a mini-tour of Europe,[8] after which recording sessions resumed sometime in 2002 in Norway,[9] where Sandoval's partner Colm Ó Cíosóig confirmed that he contributed bass, keyboards, guitar and drums to "maybe five tracks" found on the album.[1] Recording continued intermittently thereafter, with sessions taking place between Norway, London and California.[1]

Roback has confirmed that several album's worth of unreleased material was recorded during the sessions that yielded Seasons of Your Day,[10] although Sandoval has cast doubt on whether any of this material will be released, stating that future albums will "probably" be released "once our families inherit everything after we're dead and gone," adding "[Then] I'm sure people will hear everything."[1]

The band made their return two years prior to the album's release, with the issue of the double A-sided single "Common Burn" / "Lay Myself Down" in 2011.[11][12] This was followed in 2012 by a European festival tour and select dates in California, as well as a performance at the Coachella Music Festival.[13] The first single to officially promote the album, "California", was released on August 20, 2013,[14] with a music video for the song being released on September 21.[15] The album was released on several formats, including a 180-gram, double-gatefolded purple-coloured vinyl.[16][17] In response to the album leaking online on September 14, Seasons of Your Day was streamed on various sources including NPR,[18] The Guardian,[19] CBC Music[20] and Pandora Radio.[21] The album was supported with a fourteen date North American tour beginning on November 3, 2013,[22] with European dates expected to be announced in the future.[23] The band released a 7" vinyl single for "Seasons of Your Day" – backed with album track "Sparrow" – on November 4. Released exclusively through Rough Trade Records, the single was limited to 300 copies worldwide.[24] The band performed "California" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on November 25, 2013.[25] On April 19, the band issued two new songs as part of Record Store Day 2014. "I'm Less Here" and "Things" were released on 7" vinyl, with the run limited to 3,000 copies.[26][27]

All songs written by Hope Sandoval and David Roback.