― Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― impudent harlot, Friday, 11 May 2007 06:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Charlie Howard, Friday, 11 May 2007 08:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 16:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bimble, Saturday, 12 May 2007 12:02 (seventeen years ago) link
i voted "heaven or las vegas" here but i listened to all songs today in a non-album kontext and the result was quite surprising. for each song there was only the option to either love it or not to love it.
1. 90% (9/10) four-calendar café2. 88% (7/8) garlands3. 80% (8/10) heaven or las vegas
the only album which nobody voted for in the poll is my favourite at the moment. very weird.
― alex in mainhattan, Sunday, 19 April 2009 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
i forgot the others. also strange, the poll winner is my least favourite album by them:
4. 50% milk & kisses5. 44% victorialand6. 40% head over heels7. 30% blue bell knoll8. 25% the moon % the melodies9. 20% treasure
― alex in mainhattan, Sunday, 19 April 2009 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh my god, we're talking about Cocteaus on this board again? Please stop encouraging me! I don't know if I want to play Milk & Kisses or Blue Bell Knoll or Garlands or whatever the fuck. I really don't know.
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Sunday, 19 April 2009 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link
My favourite is definitely Blue Bell Knoll for reasons outlined here:
http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/cocteau-twins-head-over-heels-round-21-grahams-choice/
― yugi ex, Friday, 17 February 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
i really don't understand why nobody voted for four-calendar café. i still think it is their most consistent album. and it has one of their most amazing songs on it: theft, and wandering around lost.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 6 September 2013 19:14 (ten years ago) link
maybe it's just because it's the first one i heard way back when, but blue bell knoll is probably my favorite, just wall to wall classics. it's so cool how the cocteau twins have such artfully subtle sonic variations on each of their albums so that choosing a favorite is almost down to what specific texture grabs you the most on a particular day.. like different alloys or something.
― brimstead, Monday, 7 July 2014 22:54 (nine years ago) link
xp to brimstead - title track on Blue Bell Knoll is probably one of my favourite songs by Cocteaus.
I could totally go for a whole album of this country-fried dream rock though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7igZdDJyz4
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 21 July 2017 00:36 (six years ago) link
I probably would've voted for "Treasure" but really the answer is the singles box.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 21 July 2017 02:18 (six years ago) link
Completely agree. So many classic bsides
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 21 July 2017 03:25 (six years ago) link
listening to four calendar café and milk & kisses for the first time ever and ...they're not as bad as i assumed they'd be? nowhere near the highs of heaven or las vegas, but not bad at all
― just another (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 2 August 2017 18:43 (six years ago) link
Nah. I might have a soft spot because they were two of the first I heard but I think they're great.
― I Dream of Juice (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 2 August 2017 18:44 (six years ago) link
Songs like 'Summer-Blink' are a million miles away from where they started but it feels like a well-earned and reflective respite at the end of a long journey.
― I Dream of Juice (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 2 August 2017 18:46 (six years ago) link
The problem I have with Four Calendar Cafe and Milk & Kisses is that they didn't advance beyond the sound of Heaven or Las Vegas. Before that, each album was a progression from the sound of the previous one (admittedly, only a matter of degrees--they were never not going to sound like Cocteau Twins). But after briefly experimenting with some very different approaches on the 1995 Twinlights and Otherness EPs, I was disappointed the following year when Milk & Kisses seemed to reflected none of that.
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 3 August 2017 03:13 (six years ago) link
The Otherness EP is post-peak peak CT, but owe's more to Seefeel's Mark Clifford.
For me, its either Head Over Heels or the EPs from Spangle Maker to
― Are you Eating It...or is It Eating You? (Sanpaku), Thursday, 3 August 2017 03:40 (six years ago) link
oops... to Love's Easy Tears.
― Are you Eating It...or is It Eating You? (Sanpaku), Thursday, 3 August 2017 03:41 (six years ago) link
The problem I have with Four Calendar Cafe and Milk & Kisses is that they didn't advance beyond the sound of Heaven or Las Vegas.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Thursday, 3 August 2017 11:24 (six years ago) link
I feel exactly the opposite. "Milk & Kisses" really is Cocteau by numbers, but at least the songs are there. I find 4CC kind of boring and uninspired.
― LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 3 August 2017 14:33 (six years ago) link
never got into four calendar cafe, agree with LeRooLeRoo here. Really been into head over heels / sunburst and snowblind lately. Though I think the version of "sugar hiccup" on BBC session kills the studio flat. BBC sessions is probably one of their best records
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Thursday, 3 August 2017 17:32 (six years ago) link
Is there an EP's poll?
― Cake hawn. (jed_), Thursday, 3 August 2017 18:19 (six years ago) link
Hi Jed
Can you pick the best Cocteau Twins EP/single? (poll ends 15/05/07)
love's easy tears is clearly the best tho
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Thursday, 3 August 2017 19:47 (six years ago) link
Thanks, Ross.
― Cake hawn. (jed_), Thursday, 3 August 2017 20:35 (six years ago) link
This album poll is impossible though. Depends on whatever CT i'm listening to at the time. Victorialand would probably be my choice. "Sunday" on Valet's album "Nature" totally rips on "Lazy Calm" by CT, recommended if you like that same sublime buzz
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Thursday, 3 August 2017 20:45 (six years ago) link
I have the suspicion that "Four Calendar Cafe" is not loved as it is the first album where she sings in English, where her lyrics make sense. The mystery is gone, she is just like you and me, no angel and no elf. That's totally ridiculous but the only possible reason I can up with why nobody except me loves that album. "Bluebeard" is such a great tune and the guitar has got that phantastic twangy indierock feel. And the song after is probably the best song in their oeuvre. I wrote it already upthread. It is utter perfection, music to bath in. The next song where she stutters is phantastic again. Are you all deaf? FCC is a pop album but it is of one piece, seriously underestimated. If I want to öisten to ONE album by them these days it is FCC.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:19 (six years ago) link
can up with = can come up with
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:20 (six years ago) link
There's the problem: twangy indierock feel. For longterm fans, Cocteau Twins always offered otherworldly escapism.
― #IMPOTUS (Sanpaku), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:25 (six years ago) link
Half Gifts is devastating partly because of its direct intimate lyrics
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:29 (six years ago) link
Cocteau Twins make me happy
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:40 (six years ago) link
If I was going to vote in this poll again, I would vote for Garlands
Milk & Kisses is great, though.
― this iphone speaks many languages (DJP), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:49 (six years ago) link
Treasure
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 4 August 2017 20:55 (six years ago) link
Just listened to Garlands, Head Over Heels and Treasure back to back, which I've never done before. It's been many years since I heard these:
Garlands is genuinely unsettling, I still love the dark vibe. It's always been it's own thing. Head Over Heels is more of a mixed bag than I remembered, the second half really pales in comparison to the first. It's transitional nature is apparent, it retains some of the early darkness while the better tracks let the light in. Treasure is glorious in its fullness, they've arrived at their signature sound and it all works, even the drum machine.
I think I'll spin the next three in a row now.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 26 August 2017 23:22 (six years ago) link
One of the most consistent bands of the 80s.
― he doesn't need to be racist about it though. (Austin), Saturday, 26 August 2017 23:43 (six years ago) link
I was one of the Victorialand votes - some of that has to do with how left-field a move it seemed at the time; in my peer group, the Cocteau Twins, from the EPs through Treasure, had rapidly become the "everybody agrees this band is awesome" band -- I remember specific parties with Aikea-Guinea playing on the stereo, the sound stapling itself permanently to the moment & the era. It felt like music that would bind us in the coming years. Victorialand was the first one to come out the year after I graduated high school, and I bought it fresh off the rack -- I knew I had to hear it. To get it home and hear that they'd jettisoned the propulsive, driving percussive sound that informed so much of their preceding year-plus: it felt SO brave & nervy, so confident -- I listened to that album every day for a long time in '86. Get stoned, listen to Victorialand. Feel like committing suicide, listen to Victorialand. Wonder if there's any real future, listen to Victorialand.
It was the perfect album for that time & for me then, it was a world into which I could grant myself entrance where things were beautiful and safe but not so safe that deep sadness and longing weren't also there.
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 27 August 2017 00:36 (six years ago) link
Victorialand is my favorite, as well.
― he doesn't need to be racist about it though. (Austin), Sunday, 27 August 2017 00:52 (six years ago) link
Head Over Heels is more of a mixed bag than I remembered, the second half really pales in comparison to the first.
I mean, the second half contains "In The Gold Dust Rush", "The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)", and "Musette and Drums" which are three of my favorite CT songs ever, though I agree "Multifoiled" and "My Love Paramour" aren't as strong. I always thought "Multifoiled" sounded like Siouxsie's "Cocoon" from the year before. And there's also The Cure's "Speak My Language" that came out around the same time.
― LeRooLeRoo, Sunday, 27 August 2017 00:57 (six years ago) link
I'm with you on "Musette And Drums", an excellent closer, but the others don't do it for me like "When Mama Was Moth" or "Sugar Hiccup". I'm hardly saying they're bad but there's a noticeable drop-off in quality for me.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 27 August 2017 01:51 (six years ago) link
Another vote for Victorialand. Love the absence of drums
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Sunday, 27 August 2017 04:25 (six years ago) link
moon and melodies is super underrated. in time tho my heart is with heaven or las vegas, which is probably their most perfect distilled dream pop statement - never fails to brighten up any day
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 05:17 (six years ago) link
Feel you on M+M. 'Why Do You Love Me' is one of my all-time favorite instrumentals.
― Your welcome. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 06:12 (six years ago) link
It's funny to see old threads like this revived... apparently, I was "over the Cocteaus" in about 2002. Well, they came back. I've been listening to them a lot in the last 2-3 years.
And it's still BBK.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 10:29 (six years ago) link
That sounds like 'I'm over my skeleton' to me.
― Your welcome. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 11:22 (six years ago) link
Not a big fan despite loving all the other usual suspects from that scene/era, and only heard half of these I think, but Heaven or Las Vegas would be the easy choice for me. More muscular and groovy than all the other stuff I heard.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 7 November 2017 11:52 (six years ago) link
I would say the early Heggie stuff was easily the most muscular.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 7 November 2017 16:30 (six years ago) link
oh totally RAG, "blind dumb deaf"
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 23:03 (six years ago) link
It's Victorialand but HoLV is stiff competition.
― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Thursday, 30 August 2018 21:03 (five years ago) link
Its nice to see my few old polls I ever did on ILM bobbing back up now and then!
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 4 September 2018 06:51 (five years ago) link