Cocteau Twins : Classic or Dud

Except the cut of "Teardrop" for House doesn't have Liz! (in the versions I've seen, maybe there's a longer cut)

I, embarrassingly, watched every episode of House. They would occasionally use the album version for dramatic scenes.

The concert was in Massey Hall in Toronto, which was built in 1894, and so the acoustics probably aren't ideal for making the drum machines bang like it was the club.

At Liverpool Royal Court in Oct '90, I just wanted them to turn the guitars UP. From where I was stood (near the back, late arrival) it was a hesitant wash, and it never really got going. But then, I'd seen Ride in Sheffield the previous night, my ears were probably blitzed from that (and I'd also slept in the station and had a ridiculously stressful journey to Merseyside involving two replacement buses).

They were much better in Wolverhampton and Warrington in '94. (Warrington is also where EFC hero Pat Nevin got me backstage and I had a brief fanboy chat with Liz, and a much less embarrassing encounter with members of Moose).

_WAIT - that's elizabeth fraser on Mezzanine?!?!!_


Was she ever. Last year's Massive Attack tour focused on that album -- a remarkable presentation -- featured her and over twenty-five years after I last saw her on the _Four Calendar Cafe_ tour -- where she was clearly not in the best of headspaces -- seeing her just gently/regally appear and do her two songs was so remarkable. I've been casual friends with the Chavis brothers from the Veldt for many years and they got to know Robin and Liz when Robin produced an unreleased album by them in 1990, and they met up with her backstage at one of the East Coast dates of the tour and the photos they posted and the memories made it clear they were very happy to see her again and vice versa, and that she's in good spirits. I value that very, very highly.

Robin produced an unreleased album by them in 1990

Are Apollo Heights (following on from The Veldt) finished? I completely missed their second album The Killer Of Sheep, but nobody actually seems to own it, so it must be unreleased?

Okay, they're The Veldt again now with two new EPs
https://theveldtmusic.bandcamp.com/
and an unreleased album called Resurrection Hymns. So the Chaivs Brothers have 3 unreleased albums? Killer Of Sheep was said to be their darkest thing yet.

Chavis Brothers, sorry.

https://www.facebook.com/VeldtThe/posts/3473214679401355?__tn__=-R
Still trying to release that first album!

right on

Toured with Seefeel last year and are working on a "vinyl" album now.

I'm still very, very annoyed that due to pure chance in planning, I missed both the Veldt playing in SF for the first time in forever the other year -- and the following week also missed the last Monkees tour as such for Good Times where the date I could have seen in Monterey was one of the very few Mike showed up at since he lives in the Carmel Valley. Had I reversed some dates on my end somehow I could have seen both!

An understandably disjointed but entertaining potted history of the Cocteaus, 4AD and various associated acts...

https://arcane-delights.com/2020/12/15/cocteau-twins-4ad-the-mary-chain-other-stories-an-interview-with-colin-wallace/

Cocteau Twins, 4AD, The Mary Chain & Other Stories – An Interview with Colin Wallace

Now desperately need to hear Liz Frazer singing ‘Baggy Trousers’.

What a great piece. Receiving these records on the other side of the world I thought it was all the work of gods, it’s hilarious to hear the real stories.

Yes, really enjoyed that! Thanks for sharing

i've been listening to all those eps SOOOOOO much this year. thanks for sharing that article, and thanks to many itt for pointing me in the right direction with the pair of cocteau musicians that make up the group <3

let me be clear: my cocteau twins fever has not resided. it has not faded away. no. in fact, it has only grown stronger, more interconnected, reinforced stronger still. i feel that i now have a strong handle on the 2 musicians that formed the pair, those two, those cocteau twins. up through Heaven or Las Vegas. I have actually never listened to them after that, to my knowledge.

i also now realize that the archetypal "ep band" was cocteau twins. the idea of a band putting lots of good shit on the eps, hard to find in a record shop, you gotta import it, etc - that's cocteau twins

will someone please call me out on my cocteau twins are only two musicians gag, it's holding me down and i need help eradicating it

please, someone tell me i was the first to think of it too

soooooo if the Cocteau Twins are two musicians then why did Harold Budd dedicate 'Flowered Knife Shadows' to Simon Raymonde

just tryin' to help

+ searched for saint who posted 'need-fire' to thread in recent months - many thanks

I fictionally tagged it as track 11 of 'Milk And Kisses' just to hear it more

will someone please call me out on my cocteau twins are only two musicians gag, it's holding me down and i need help eradicating it

Well, you are right regarding Head Over Heels and Victorialand. (Sorry.)

Sorry, I can't, Jerry & Debby Cocteau were in fact a magnificent musical duo.

just a check-in: i STILL have cocteau fever, and i'm beginning to think it's more like a chronic condition that i don't want to go away. but somehow, i held off on listening to anything after Heaven or Las Vegas, until today.

the album: Four-Calendar Cafe
the songs i thought were pretty good: "know who you are at every age", "evangeline"
the one i think is an all-time cocteau twins classic, and if i ever am in a diner and hear some wiseacre threatening his significant other by making fun of late cocteau twins and suggesting there's nothing there to find, i might walk over and be like "hey buddy, you're fucking wrong about that. the song is "PUR". google it sometime. it kicks ass. and now i'm about to kick YOUR ass", etc etc

but yeah, "pur" is the one for me. getting ready to do some milk & kisses

"violaine" fucking rules

OH SHIT!

"lullabies to violaine"...so that's why. ok. wait, does this mean that cocteau twins lyrics are supposed to make sense or reference anything tangible? because i'm not ready for this change

continued first impressions: milk & kisses is really good! was not expecting that. i don't know the band lore or what happened to liz or label stuff. i have the perception that people tend to drop off after las vegas, and there is a definite inflection point in their sound, before and after. but damn, some of milk & kisses really rules.

also, "sixteen days / gathering dust" rules. on a song-per-song basis, album/ep/mortal coil/harold buddin' around/house theme song, the consistent level of quality is astounding. they were either really prolific and good self-editing, or only played brilliant music, all the time. it's one of those. either way, well done, twins!

Milk and Kisses IS very good, Rilkean Heart*, Eperdu, and Seekers Who Are Lovers are all-time Cocteau tracks. But yeah, it can be a little odd in the latterdays when you can make out most of what she's singing.

*The little piano version of this on the Twinlights EP is also awesome

what's the deal with Four-Calendar Cafe? even the title?!

"The album took its title from William Least Heat-Moon's book Blue Highways, in which the author considers the quality of a restaurant by how many calendars it has hanging on its wall."

that's cool, but garlands, head over heels, treasure, victorialand, the moon and the melodies, blue bell knoll, heaven or las vegas, FOUR-CALENDAR CAFE

I always thought Heaven or Las Vegas was the odd one out

That one is kinda weird, it’s true

I adore Heaven or Las Vegas and Milk and Kisses but have never been able to get with FCC – the tunes, the lyrics you can understand or the production even.

Same. Except for "Pur". That is top tier Cocteau.

Four-Calendar Cafe is better than Garlands

i need to spend more time with both, but i looooved garlands on first listen, from the first note

“know who you are from every age” and “summerhead” are my favs from FCC

I fell hard for Four Calendar Cafe a couple years ago after neglecting it for a long time. Theft, and Wandering Around Lost is the major highlight for me—definitely a top 10 Cocteaus song. Also I think Four Calendar Cafe is only marginally more intelligible lyrically than Heaven or Las Vegas

I agree, my favourites are "Theft and wandering around lost" and "Oil of angels". The surface is very demure yet the feelings go deep. In "Theft", the whole structure is just a setup for the key changes at 2.53 and again at the very last chord, keeping the emotions on an even keel until they break out.

f.hazel that's easily disproven when one considers that *nothing* is better than Garlands

Garlands is the one I always return to, can't get enough of the sound of it. Peppermint Pig 12" too.

this has been your Sunday evening Cocteaus challops service

you should of heard the sound my monocle made as it hit the floor

I link Four-Calendar Cafe inextricably with December 1993, when I had it in heavy rotation and we decorated our apartment with mountains of Christmas lights, which had of late become extremely cheap and colorful.

My Cocteaus fandom is a bit like BradNelson's approach to music, whichever one I am listening to at the time is the best ever made.
But Garlands is special to me, it was hard to find back in 80s Australia and felt like my first "deep" album purchase.

Ok after re-listening to both albums this morning, I can confirm that Four-Calendar Cafe is every bit as good as Heaven or Las Vegas, which I suppose is my biggest Cocteaus-related challop. xp I feel you with those Christmas lights; this music is a perfect soundtrack to the blizzard that's raging here in NYC right now. Such powerful Winter Wonderland vibes

I want to have Cocteau Fever at that intensity, I really do. But Heaven or Las Vegas is pretty much flawless (like almost everything they releases in the 1980s, it seems)

altho it itself is a 1990 release
I’m not even going to rise to the 4CC challop