Best Cocteau Twins album

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 café
2. 88% (7/8) garlands
3. 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.

i forgot the others. also strange, the poll winner is my least favourite album by them:

4. 50% milk & kisses
5. 44% victorialand
6. 40% head over heels
7. 30% blue bell knoll
8. 25% the moon % the melodies
9. 20% treasure

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.

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/

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.

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.

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

I probably would've voted for "Treasure" but really the answer is the singles box.

Completely agree. So many classic bsides

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

Nah. I might have a soft spot because they were two of the first I heard but I think they're great.

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.

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.

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

oops... to Love's Easy Tears.

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.

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.

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

Is there an EP's poll?

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

Thanks, Ross.

Heaven for me but Victorialand is close.

those two records are always doing battle in my head. depressive me says victorialand, the me that loves great pop says holv

Victorialand always.

BBK forever but I did listen to Head Over Heels for the first time in a few years on a solo wander around Epping Forest, after a lunchtime pint, and it was glorious!

They were always one of those bands where I'd change my mind on which my favourite album was. I think Head Over Heels was my favourite when I first got into them. Heaven Or Las Vegas is far ahead of the others these days. Victorialand in second place.

I think I'd forgotten how cavernous and teenage-intense HoH is; some of Liz's most memorable pre-conlang lyrics too - "There’s only a hair’s breadth between us/Askew as we are", "Paramour/ooze out and away onehow", "In the gold dust rush I only genuflect". No wonder her and Ian McC were such good mates. Sing nonsense as if your life depends on it.

Genuflect is a very bunnymen word, yes. In fact I was after another use of genuflect to complete a trilogy and this will do nicely.

(Ultra Vivid Scene being the other, shut your eyes and genuflect, the avenging angel comes.)

there's also 23 years too late by wire from read and burn 3

ugh

Elizabeth Fraser, the other worldly voice of Cocteau Twins performed a rare gig in London on Monday night. Fraser has been elusive these days, having only performed live a handful of times since the band’s demise over 20 years ago.

http://www.post-punk.com/cocteau-twins-elizabeth-fraser-makes-a-rare-live-performance-in-london/

Society of the Golden Slippers
Like This Page · 19 hrs ·

So, last night we hosted a rare performance from the glorious Liz Fraser who was joined by John Grant for a song. What a privilege! We still can't quite believe it happened! Huge thanks to Elena Tonra (Daughter) and Julia Biel for their gorgeous opening sets. What a night! — with Caroline Cremin.

Did it actually happen? Yes it did. Liz Fraser and John Grant joined us in our intimate salon and sang us to heaven. pic.twitter.com/CIGxne9214

— Golden Slippers (@GoldenSlippers7) September 4, 2018

HOLV seems to be the consensus pick these days, and would probably win if this poll were run again. I dunno, I still think Treasure is their defining moment – the apex of their early pre-Raphaelite leanings.

To me it's always felt HOLV was the consensus pick?

It will never not be Blue Bell Knoll for me, but any of the others can give it a run for its money on a suitable day. Currently rediscovering Victorialand for the tenth time.

some of Liz's most memorable pre-conlang lyrics too - "There’s only a hair’s breadth between us/Askew as we are"

Happened across this at random and omg, I never realised it was "askew" she sang there, I thought it was "obscure as we are". but now it all makes sense!

Theres only a hair's breadth between us, askew as we are
There's only a hair's breath between us, a-strewn as we be

Getting on the web for the first time properly in the summer of '93 (doing a software engineering postgrad thing at Liverpool Uni), I downloaded and *printed out* all kinds of 4AD content. These Cocteau lyrics - whether they're right or not - are fixed in my mind in Courier New monospace on sheets of A4.

Head over Heels was released 40 years ago today (24 October 1983). Still my favourite Cocteau Twins album, just ahead of Heaven or Las Vegas.

https://thequietus.com/articles/13632-cocteau-twins-head-over-heels