Cocteau Twins : Classic or Dud

I'll take any excuse to repost this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaOlNfC8_xQ

She's been offered sums "beyond your wildest dreams" to collaborate with other artists – "the weirdest one was Linkin Park"

LOL just saw this.

I'll take any excuse to repost this:

The...hell.

Article's a little wrong at points when it comes to her musical silence -- for instance, she appeared (briefly) on the first two Lord of the Rings film scores

Yeah I noticed that error too, his claim she "only" did the Massive Attack album. Crap! She also worked with FSOL, Yann Tiersen, and Peter Gabriel (her work on the Millenium Dome album is lovely).

Is her single available somewhere online, the RT website or something?

Oh and she did that gorgeous song with the Bathers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbPhJPY1iKc

Hahaha that Cocteau Madness video is amazing.

Reading back through the thread it seems like "not liking Cocteau Twins" was the mid 80s/early 90s equivalent of "not liking Radiohead".

Actually maybe it still is.

Really? I rarely come across people who vehemently dislike them or think theyre not cool to like. I do come across peopel whove not heard them though, or are indifferent.

I dunno. With advent of the internets and it being so easy to be a music "expert" they're arguably more popular than ever, with which comes the inevitable backlash viz "They're so unanimously liked that I intensify what would otherwise be indifference to their music" &c.

That clip up is so o_0 in ways I can't actually articulate. It's almost like a parallel universe or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTx8VnZBvDc

some things are better not explained it seems

This isnt stuff I didnt already know (the stuff about random dictionary words and whatnot). She's said that heaps of times.

OOh she's never actually read'em out before though! haha! That was amusing.

I did know that a few songs were like, lists of scientific insect names and stuff.

so I just found out that "Memory Gongs" off Moon and the Melodies is a Harold Budd track called "Flowered Knife Shadows (for Simon Raymonde)" with a couple of gongs dubbed over the beginning?

Is it? I should track that down and compare em. I was just listening to M&tM yesteday funnily enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez_ULa7PI8s

Wow its exactly the damn same.

It's from a Budd album of the same year I think so fair enough but the 2 different titles is an oddity. As I said, "Memory Gongs" has gongs and that's the diff.

Yeah it was "Lovely Thunder", right?

k so this is one of those things where i bought 'heaven & las vegas' on cassette in like 1993 and really dug it but for never reason never sought out another album. now, many years later, i feel like it's time for a second cocteaus album. what shall it be?

Victorialand. Don't bother with the goth shit or the last couple.

Victorialand or Blue Bell Knoll

I'd say "whichever one you see first".

I've recently come to the conclusion that they're probably one my top three bands of all time.

cocteau twins, smash mouth, sugar ray

Swap out Sugar Ray (fourth) with Crazy Town and you pegged it.

s1ocki: get Milk and Kisses, Garlands and Victorialand; IMO those three along with Heaven & Las Vegas are the essential Cocteau albums

Treasure and Heaven Or Las Vegas are my favourite, by far.

I really thought Treasure was the acknowledged masterpiece?

Victorialand is my fave album, along with Head Over Heels. Lots of their EP's are essential though, especially Love's Easy Tears and Aikea-Guinea.

Am gonna post this on the rolling Bandcamp/free albums thread, but this band Ahsrae Fax put out a pretty great Cocteaus-ish record in 2002 called "Static Crash". They were a little ahead/out of their time, and seemed to play with a lot of noise bands, but they were great live and super nice folks. Can't recommend this record enough, good female vox, synths, textured guitars etc.:

http://ashraefax.bandcamp.com/album/static-crash

yeah treasure WTF, if you only have two get treasure and heaven or las vegas.

I'd happily recommend one of their singles collections or the BBC sessions to a newbie. Even their compilations are fantastic (and some of their non-LP tracks are among their very best).

'the pink opaque' is a good early years overview if you don't know that stuff very well

i am a 'head over heels' guy all the way tho

Highly recommend The Pink Opaque. It was released in the 80s as a "hello America" introduction to the band, comprised of a few album tracks and singles, and it did its job well. Even though it's not a proper album, it's my favorite.

some of those bbc sessions are better than the studio tracks (esp. 'hazel' and 'blind dumb deaf')

Head Over Heels and Heaven or Las Vegas are my favorite LPs, but The Spangle Maker EP, reprised in its entirety (minus a 7" edit) on The Pink Opaque comp, remains their finest moment.

agreed - I would go w/BBC Sessions or Pink Opaque to get a sense of where you would want to go next as far as the albums proper.

"The Spangle Maker" is one of the all-time greatest songs of ever.

^ fact

If we're discussing Cocteau Twins soundalikes, there's a lot of goth dribble that gets the instrumental side down, but almost none have a vocalist that can pull off Liz Frasier's fluid / Ella Fitzgerald like stylings. My only strong recommendation here is the unfortunately named California band Orange, fronted by Sonya Waters, who released an eponymous album in 1994 on Dewdrops Records run by Brant from the 4AD mailing list.

Hey, Youtube has Feijoa by Orange

Sorry, I actually regret posting my version above, I had just run across a mention of that band and was excited about it! Nothing is as good at being Cocteau Twins as the real deal of course. Sorry to cloud the waters.

now i dont know WHAT to do

fwiw, we're all right and Noodle Vague is full of shit.

Victorialand is the best

If you lke Heaven Or Las Vegas, Blue bell knoll and Milk and Honey are definitely the closest to that sound. All their albums are great, though.

s1ocki, get Milk & Kisses