Cups of POLLy-Dewdrops' Drops -- ILM Artist Poll #35 -- The COCTEAU TWINS results thread

Never liked "Aikea-Guinea", so a bit baffled by that being our #1. And "Wolf in the Breast" woz robbed. Otherwise, great work everyone. And an exemplary roll out by LeRooLeRoo.

My ballot:

01. A Kissed Out Red Floatboat
02. Wolf in the Breast
03. Suckling the Mender
04. Sugar Hiccup
05. Ivo
06. Donimo
07. Aloysius
08. Fotzepolitic
09. Beatrix
10. Blue Bell Knoll
11. Musette and Drums
12. Orange Appled
13. Quisquose
14. Athol-Brose
15. From the Flagstones
16. Heaven or Las Vegas
17. Those Eyes, That Mouth
18. Lorelei
19. Fifty-fifty Clown
20. Rococo

Nobody loves "Theft and wandering around lost" except me? That song is like a bath on a cloud in heaven. It's warm & cosy & a little sad, in one word pure bliss. Additionally the lyrics are about her body, maybe this is the song about menstruation?

I always thought that song was about... well, rape, to be blunt. Abuse at the very least. She was abused by a family member as a kid, and I figured the song mightve been about that, seeing as she was doing therapy and stuff at that point.

"The man is an offender
He took my value
And I give back his shame
And I take back my power"

Its jarring when she started singing actual,emotional real stuff,because some of it was fairly dark. Reminds me of how TMBG sound so happy but a lot of their songs are miserable lyrically!

And on that note actually, and I'm sure ive mentioned this before: love how "Rilkean Heart" and "Tishbite" are about Jeff Buckley. And his song "Morning Theft" is about her.

Sorry, Half-Gifts, not Tishbite!

(tho, I guess HG could be about Robin as well now I think about it)

Oh and, sorry to blather on so much, but "Theft" has one of my fave ever lines of hers in it: "keep cutting myself on the edges of reality". So awesome.

i think you are right about theft, trayce, actually it's quite obvious, i think the lyrics go on like that:

My body is my own
My body is mine alone
And I deserve protection
And I can create it for you
Is this what my body said?
Use me
Drain me
Fall around me
Is this what my body said?
Engulf me
I'm already dead

it's even more so an absolute miracle of a song. how can someone write such beautiful music about such a terrible experience? that's incredible.

Indeed :)

"Theft, And Wandering Around Lost" is the first track I regretted not including after alex in mainhattan repped hard for it on 2 other threads including the poll setup. was amazed when I looked up those lyrics! Four Calendar Cafe is hella underrated, side 1 is pure gold!

thanks to digging due to this poll I've also discovered new faves like "Mud And Dark" and other FCC & M&K era b-sides.

woulda put "Itchy Glowbo Blow" higher too had I relistened before submitting ballot. also regret not voting for "Suckling The Mender".

who's the other "Otterley" vote? good on ya! no love for "Feet-Like Fins" (OG Victorialand version)?

I love "Feet-Like Fins". That whole album is incredible. I'm surprised I was the only one who voted for "The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)". It's so dramatic.
But I love the Gothteaus (lol love that name), I also gave "But I'm Not" it's only vote.

paul, i am happy that you appreciate fcc and esp. theft, and wandering around. a minor correction though: in the poll setup i didn't mention the song, but you quoted me from the old album poll thread.

Speaking of "Otterley" does any French speaker think she's actually using French words in this? I hear "On est bien", "On est ensemble", "Saveur de toi", "Doucement", etc...

great poll! thanks, LRLR!

my ballot:

1. The Spangle Maker
2. Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops
3. Lorelei
4. Aikea-Guinea
5. Sugar Hiccup
6. Cherry-Coloured Funk
7. Millimillenary
8. Kookaburra
9. Frosty The Snowman
10. Iceblink Luck
11. Wax And Wane
12. Heaven Or Las Vegas
13. Donimo
14. Mud And Dark
15. Sigh’s Smell Of Farewell
16. Hitherto
17. Bluebeard
18. Circling Girl
19. Feathers-Oars-Blades
20. Musette And Drums

re: French "Otterley" - I'm convinced I hear "ce soir la", but I'm sure there's some lyric site interpretations to tell me otherwise.

I really do believe some of the obsessives (originally on the Cocteau Twins website/s?) who've subjected the music to overlistening have uncovered some closer-to-true lyrics. for example, I always heard "Fotzepolitic" as "seams sew me back to you", but missed the word 'bounce' which I now can hear! so: "see and saw bounce me back to you".

on the other hand, I own the Japanese LP of Garlands complete with lyric sheet so I see where it can go horribly wrong and comical.

as in, the printed lyrics are incorrect, or having the correct ones lets you see how wrong everybody else was?

I think I was the other Otterley voter! I like it for its presaging of Victorialand.

I don't think they've ever provided full lyrics, just the snippets on the first 2 albums.
the Japanese record label made a valiant but doomed effort to work out all the Garlands lyrics - quite funny to read.
haven't looked at it in a while but I wouldn't be surprised if they flubbed even the provided snippet placements.

"Otterley" has always been my fave. I think it's just one open chord, tuned to minor-major 9th (minor 3rd, major 7th), played in 4 positions with a linking melody. probably my fave harmonic progression of theirs too. also once had (still have?) a demo version of it on a music rag (NME/MM?) freebie cassette.

It's interesting that quite a few of us have so much of our ballots represented, which suggests that we've hit upon a canon, no?

I think it might be because it took only 3 votes to get into the top 50, and we are posting top twenties.

Thanks for doing this poll! Cocteau love on ILX so heartening. My ballot (a Top 10):

Those Eyes, That Mouth
Rilkean Heart
Cherry-Coloured Funk
Fotzepolitic
Blue Bell Knoll
Lorelei
Carolyn's Fingers
Amelia
Ivo
Summerhead

The Top 50 is broken down like this:

Treasure: 7 songs, 1249 points
Heaven Or Las Vegas: 7 songs, 1189 points
Blue Bell Knoll: 7 songs, 868 points
Head Over Heels: 5 songs, 858 points
Victorialand : 5 songs, 590 points
Milk & Kisses: 1 song, 107 points
Garlands: 1 song, 99 points
The Moon and The Melodies: 1 song, 96 points

Love's Easy Tears: 3 songs, 630 points
The Spangle Maker: 3 songs, 601 points
Aikea Guinea: 2 songs, 503 points
Sunburst & Snowblind: 2 songs, 360 points
Tiny Dynamine: 1 song, 206 points
Echoes in a Shallow Bay: 2 songs, 190 points

The Pink Opaque: 1 song, 152 points
It'll End In Tears: 1 song, 125 points
Lonely Is An Eyesore: 1 song, 111 points

^Presented this way makes a lot of sense to me - i.e. feels about right.

Except I voted for the "Sunburst..." version of Sugar Hiccup. If everyone else did the same that puts it (rightly) top of the EPs ;-)

x-post: interesting stats!

here's a correction on the "Otterley" music:

open chord is: g,b♭,d,g,a,d
and the harmonic effect of the melody over the shifted open chord is:

gm9 (no 7th) 4 bars (=same thing as gm add9)

cm9 (no 7th) 2 bars -> e♭mM9 2 bars
cm9 (no 7th) 2 bars -> g♭mM9 2 bars

on the repeat the melody over the gm9 goes 9th->octave->minor 7th->major 7th at which point yields: gmM9
so if you want a good example of what minor(3rd)-major(7th) chords sound like (with added 9th), "Otterley" is it!
there's an additional drone which could be from the reverb or sustained notes (probably from/related to one of the chords above)

Martyn Bates is another guitarist from same era who made great use of (droning) fourths in chords, especially on the high (b and e) strings, for example "Bright Play Of Eyes".

Many thanks for your time and effort SebLRLR. And for bearing with me with my duplicates and so on

SONGS
Lorelei
sugar hiccup
lazy calm
aikea - guinea
heaven or las vegas
athol brose
Pandora
Pearly dew drops…
Carolyn's fingers
Kookaburra
Pink Orange red
Cherry coloured funk
spooning good singing gum
Cico buff
For Phoebe…
Iceblink luck
from the flagstones
Feathers Oar Blades (that's off an EP right?)
Orange appled
Fluffy Tufts
Those eyes that mouth

Albums
Treasure
Heaven or..
Blue Bell
Victorialand
Head over heels

Otterley is so good, it just missed my ballot.

27. "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
27. "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
27. "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
27. "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
27. "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"
27. "Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires"

******

WTF?!?!!?!?!?!!?!!??!!?

******
#ambientaggro_outofbounds

i've been scanning through this thread, loving it. loving every single post. and then i get to #27, and the song that i expected to be top 3, it's...# 27. only 5 votes! wtf did frou-frou do to you?

the chilly verses, like cigarettes outside the garage in winter, and then inside to whatever place that the chorus is, whatever is happening there - that is the very warmest, best place.

WAIT A SECOND

#65: In the Gold Dust Rush?

no. no. nO NONONONONONO

this is not right. i demand a re-poll

listen to it, it's this weird jangly moment - imagine if felt came up with 2 or 3 more riffs like this one, it's fucking amazing

to me the verse is an instant classic, it sounds soooo iconic and good

#ambientaggro_outofbounds

lmao

I would’ve def voted frou frou high

arguably the reverb is on too high. i get that. i'm tolerant of high reverb, others aren't. (others who can't appreciate a heavenly fucking thing when th-)

I would’ve def voted frou frou high

― brimstead,

when i read this, i immediately think

we need a re-poll

these are different times. this is 2021!!!

you know what, though, now that it's 10 minutes later and i've sobered up, i recognize that the vast majority of my top 20 appeared in the top 40 of this poll. also, ALL of these songs are so lovely. i'm smitten. i was kidding about my aggro thing, it's a silly thing because cocteau twins are so NON-aggressive and it really hits the spot for me sometimes (a person who sometimes goes aggressive, i have to admit, when i care, because goddammit! etc, but cocteau twins are the other side of that, just the real good stuff for me. <3 oof oof

the whole album is chilling in the sauna and then rolling around in the snow

I'm still sore that Eperdu placed at #82

Stumbled across this on YT and was startled to see that Will Heggie played *fretless* bass, which I can hear on the early records now that I know to listen for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alQUyaybZgo

Frou-Frou Foxes is a good song, but it is best heard as the capstone to the Heaven or Las Vegas album. It sacrifices its quality as a song to the greater good of the entire record.