― Bimble, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:59 (sixteen years ago) link
― ellaguru, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:01 (sixteen years ago) link
― Joe, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:08 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:09 (sixteen years ago) link
― pisces, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:13 (sixteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 02:14 (sixteen years ago) link
― f. hazel, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:06 (sixteen years ago) link
― poortheatre, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:08 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:20 (sixteen years ago) link
― Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 06:01 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 06:42 (sixteen years ago) link
― Dr.C, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 07:57 (sixteen years ago) link
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:12 (sixteen years ago) link
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:13 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:25 (sixteen years ago) link
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:27 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 08:28 (sixteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:02 (sixteen years ago) link
― 600, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:13 (sixteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:56 (sixteen years ago) link
― henry s, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:57 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:40 (sixteen years ago) link
― Display Name, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:07 (sixteen years ago) link
― avonhun, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:17 (sixteen years ago) link
― sleeve, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:26 (sixteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:29 (sixteen years ago) link
― SeekAltRoute, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 11:25 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 12:28 (sixteen years ago) link
― stephen, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 22:55 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Thursday, 3 May 2007 00:27 (sixteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:34 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:50 (sixteen years ago) link
― Lostandfound, Thursday, 3 May 2007 02:41 (sixteen years ago) link
― Lostandfound, Thursday, 3 May 2007 02:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 00:53 (sixteen years ago) link
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:22 (sixteen years ago) link
― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 21:30 (sixteen years ago) link
― HI DERE, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 21:50 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 22:17 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 22:19 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Thursday, 10 May 2007 05:02 (sixteen years ago) link
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:18 (sixteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
― Trayce, Friday, 11 May 2007 04:46 (sixteen 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
Heaven for me but Victorialand is close.
― yes, said (Ross), Tuesday, 4 September 2018 16:50 (five years ago) link
those two records are always doing battle in my head. depressive me says victorialand, the me that loves great pop says holv
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 4 September 2018 17:00 (five years ago) link
Victorialand always.
― jmm, Tuesday, 4 September 2018 17:06 (five years ago) link
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!
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 4 September 2018 21:17 (five years ago) link
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.
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 4 September 2018 21:21 (five years ago) link
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.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 4 September 2018 22:22 (five years ago) link
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.)
― koogs, Tuesday, 4 September 2018 22:33 (five years ago) link
there's also 23 years too late by wire from read and burn 3
― com rad erry red flag (f. hazel), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 00:45 (five years ago) link
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/
― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 02:04 (five years ago) link
Society of the Golden SlippersLike 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
― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 02:06 (five years ago) link
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.
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 09:36 (five years ago) link
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.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 09:44 (five years ago) link
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 areThere's only a hair's breath between us, a-strewn as we be
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 03:36 (four years ago) link
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.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 09:12 (four years ago) link
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
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Tuesday, 24 October 2023 05:38 (six months ago) link