Cocteau Twins - Milk & Kisses C/D

As in, Area/M7x, Bel Canto, Strange Boutique, later Love Spiral Downward, maybe Collection d'Arnell-Andrea and Mephisto Walz, are all "thislisty" music.

Hey wow, 4AD-L reprazent. I think I was there maybe '94 - '97. Eyesore is still out there I believe.

Well if Projekt used the term "ethereal wave" to sell records back in the day, I guess it must have been a genre. There isn't much more to genre is there? Thanks everybody!

Genres are walls now; they used to be maps.

Milk & kisses has been a big letdown for me after the two phantastic albums before. "heaven or las vegas" was my entrance to the cocteaus, a literally heavenly album if there ever was one. "four-calendar café" was more of the same but even more perfect. each song a killer. i am just listening to it and still surprised how well it aged. the perfect night music. there is nothing more soothing than listening to it between 3 and 4 in the morning.

Sad to hear the Guthrie remasters aren't well liked, they're all I've ever known.

The ethereal goth/dreampop thread covers everything ethereal wave.

Will Four-Calendar Cafe or Milk & Kisses ever get reissued? Seems like now would be a good time.

Somehow I never realized that the second volume of Lullabies to Violane had all the B-sides from the Milk and Kisses era. I’m not sure any of them belonged on the album based the first few listens. But they are pretty good – and there are a ton of them.

Tranquil Eye is a fun Milk and Kisses b-side!

I've been listening to King's sole album practically on repeat through Covid. Especially in its second half its practically a love-letter to Heaven or Las Vegas era Cocteaus, esp the post-album b-side Watchlar. How I wish this, more R&B inflected, version of the Cocteaus was the template for Milk & Kisses. I mean, Massive Attack surely heard this direction prior to "Teardrop".

A huge problem for me with all the bands shoveled into "etherial wave" bin (see above) is they could mimic the guitar presets, but weren't R&B fans. Liz Frasier wasn't a gothy choir girl, she was trying to channel Ella.

Imagine if the Milk & Kisses sessions had been produced by "3D" Del Naja. Might not have saved the band, but it would have been a great course correction.

Thanks for the heads up – I’m also a big “Watchlar” fan and about 15 seconds into the first track of that King record I was thinking Ryuichi Sakamoto, so it was nice to see they’re into him.

All that said I’m not totally sure this feels that Cocteau-y to me? One of my favorite things about Liz is that there are so many of her. There’s Speaking in Tongues Liz (She Will Destroy You, Frou-Frou). There’s Plaintive Liz (The open of Fotzepolitic). There’s Ethereal Trilling Liz (Lorelei, Aikea-Guinea, Half-Gifts). There’s Operatic Liz (Seekers Who Are Lovers, Carolyn’s Fingers). There’s Wailing Liz (Love’s Easy Tears, Great Spangled Fritillary).

It’s not that simple obv. but I feel like we don’t get that on King?

Somehow I never realized that the second volume of Lullabies to Violane had all the B-sides from the Milk and Kisses era. I’m not sure any of them belonged on the album based the first few listens. But they are pretty good – and there are a ton of them.

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 16 November 2020 03:22 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ending with "Alice" seems both appropriate and like finishing with a question mark - that track most of all suggests a different route the band could have taken had they stayed together.

have any of their final recordings as a band from 1997 been released? I thought Touch Upon Touch was the latest recorded song that got official release.

On the last Volume compilation? I bought a few of those, but I don't recognise Volume 17 from Discogs, so I guess I never picked that one up. I may never have heard that track until now (Treasure Hiding comp on Spotify). They were pretty good at giving exclusive gems to comps. The High Monkey-Monk is a bit of a classic, I think (Melody Maker comp - which I got on cassette, long gone now). Doesn't sound like a BBK/HoLV cast-off at all, but something out on its own.

true! Touch upon Touch was on the Dewdrops compilation "Splashed with Many a Speck" too