Cocteau Twins : Classic or Dud

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

i'm still new here and this is probably not 100% true, but i think it's very possible that Heaven or Las Vegas actually ENDED the 1980s. i mean, it was already 1990, true, but Heaven perfected the entire decade of the 1980s, showing that there was no point in going down that path, especially because of all the 90s calendars that had been already been printed

Four of them, even

Zach that is a pretty useful conceit, although it came out later in 1990 as I recall. What a joy it was to get home from the record shop and cue that album up. Same year as MBV's Tremolo I think, it was pretty clear this was forever music.

'4CC' and 'Milk & Kisses' are fantastic. 'Calfskin Smack,' 'Treasure Hiding,' 'Know Who You Are At Every Age,' 'Squeeze-Wax' *chef's kiss*

Tremolo was early 91. Trust me, I know.

Glider, 1990, yes.

Tremolo was early 91. Trust me, I know.

hope yr getting your (gulp) 30th anniversary piece ready ned!

xxp lol Ned

HoLV was Sep 17 '90, Tremolo was Feb 4 '91 (30y tomorrow!). I also don't have to look these dates up, seems like every Monday morning I was in a record shop back then ;)

Trust me, I know.

― Ned Raggett

i am going on hunger strike until this exact text is the new board description.

"The Ark of the Covenant"
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure"

man i'm hungry

fucken starvin

sugar hiccup bah cheerios

I mentioned this on another thread but I scored a set of the 80s singles recently and they sound SO MUCH BETTER than lullabies to violaine omg. It’s nice when you turn up a CD and actually hear more detail and not just ear bleeding mush.

u mean the 10CD box? god I love that thing

brims—

we have the original uk cd version of head over heels + sunburst and snowblind and yes: dynamics! i know some people complain about some of those albums being too shrill on the cd mastering, but i never understood the mindset that louder = better.

something something loudness wars.

also i didn't eat breakfast this morning.

again.

Chris Ott wrote like 1200 words about the mastering on these things for Pitchfork when they were reissued.

IRONIC

wait, what

Listened to Need-Fire today, don't forget about Need-Fire guys.

A little fun trivia just now on Twitter

I can’t be sure but think this was the 1st time Quisquose ~a song we wrote in 1985 for the Aikea-Guinea EP~ has ever been heard on the BBC in its 36 years. What is unique about this is that Robin & I both played 6 string basses, me an Ibanez he a Fender https://t.co/TYYIq5y2PC

— mrsimonraymonde (@mrsimonraymonde) June 9, 2021

https://twitter.com/mrsimonraymonde/status/1402459951478476801

Whoops, don't know why the second one didn't take

https://twitter.com/mrsimonraymonde/status/1402459951478476801