Cocteau Twins : Classic or Dud

the fact that you're second-guessing yourself just now means the lyrics are probably not "fairly clear and obvious"

fairly, not entirely.

Anyway my general point is, idgaf if people do covers, I'm not precious about it, but this one felt particularly hamfisted.

I honestly did not know most of the lyrics to this song were real words

i learned how to play that song a few weeks ago on guitar, and i was singing along for the first time, it was kind of a baffling experience. the disconnect between her words and their effect on me, i mean. i would read them, and even sing them to the song, and it was just...nothing. but when liz sings them they seem like the most powerful and important things in the world.

i recall reading her saying more than once she was "feeling the words" like, her singing is the emotion, rather than the words themselves is how I guess I took it?

forever "bituminous itchy muscle" in my brain for 30+ years

LOL I cant unhear her singing "Sinn Fein" in one song, so you know.

Just interviewed Robin Guthrie for Bandcamp. THAT was a treat. It'll be a short guide to his solo work, and I learned a heck of a lot.

Oh wow, awesome.

Look forward to reading it

yeah, so cool! and i could use a short guide to his solo work, so looking forward to reading that for sure

Did you talk about his work with Harold Budd? Would love to hear his memories of working with him.

congrats ned, that's great

Thanks all -- yes the focus was on his strictly solo stuff with one exception, namely the Budd work. It'll be a total of five or six albums out of the whole -- think of this piece of mine as a model for the format:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/a-guide-to-alessandro-cortinis-exploratory-electronic-music

I had a cocktail named "Cherry-Coloured Funk" the other day, it was fine. I'm sure it's not the first time a drink was named after that song

pic.twitter.com/RuA760P7F9

— Gabe (@gabrielszatan) February 9, 2022

It must be true

I recently got a copy of Blue Bell Knoll on vinyl. It sounds spectacular.

deciphering the lyrics to Blue Bell Knoll will lead you to a bejeweled statuette hidden in an English country field

"DRINK YOUR OVALTINE"

BE SURE TO DRINK
YOUR ATHOLL BROSE

So she really was saying "sip cherry coke" hih

I wish I'd saved the images when they were posted up on FB some years back but someone posted a letter they got from Lizzie way back in the day where I guess the band were still small enough to write back to some fans. And she wrote down all the lyrics to the Lullabies EP for this guy, when they'd just written it. It is I think a fascinating insight into how she wrangles words and scansion:

Alas Dies Laughing
Flaxen the tresses / Both
Flesh and fleshings / Tongue-
Tied and stuttering / Was
Quick take to mummering
Flaxen the tresses All
Fingers and stresses / Tongue-
tied and stuttering / Was
Quick take to mummering

like when you listen to this, I think what she ends up singing is slightly diff (she says "quick take to mummering fun" or tounge or similar). But yeah thats it.

Feathers Oar Blades
Bare in foot and hide
Barefaced bareheaded
Bare in foot and hide
Bare in foot and hide
Crestfallen, weeping
The cripples though crestless
Are crestfallen weeping
Feathers oar blades
Splitting hair feathers
Spitting out oar blades
Spitting out oar blades
Crestfallen, weeping
The cripples though crestless
Are crestfallen weeping
All in teetotum
Widdershins every’s body
Is all in teetotum
Is all in teetotum
Spitting out oar blades

She swaps the first 2 lines around on the record, maybe theyd done a few versions after she worked out the words.

Actually correction: she sings it this way on the Lullbies EP. She swaps the first 2 lines around on the Peel Session version.

But what a great play on words "Splitting hair feathers" is.

https://i.imgur.com/kqrzyJh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Mh2r6jS.jpg
holy shit - no idea these existed

oh wow i couldn’t find the scans!

so cool

Thanks for this

I've been a bit wary of knowing the exact lyrics apart from the fragments perceptible on the record covers, in the outside case they'd just turn out to be horrendous bullshit, but seeing that, I so want that complete-works volume that I cannot imagine we'll ever have.

barefaced bareheaded
bare in foot and hide

I mean

A lot of the time Lullabies is my favourite of all their stuff, so forbidding and mysterious, and as you say, knowing the lyric doesn't change that a bit.

Need to get back to that; I love Garlands and all, but the EP stuff has fallen a bit between the cracks.

the EPs are so great, endlessly rewarding timeless music

Lullabies def my favourite of all of their work, I think. That and the Echoes/Dynamine eps. Which I see were discussed at length upthread when Z had a Cocteaus-venture I missed! (I never read ILM much).

Was funny to learn it went "kicked all from my all from my all from my curtsies my curtsies my curtsies my" when I thtought she was singing "get offa my offa my case my case my" lol.

all for my all for my all for my kiss my kiss my kiss myyyy as I recall

Yeah ha I think at one point I also thought that was it. I mean who would hear "curtsies", she really smears the word.

Cocteau Twins are seen as progenitors to shoegaze in their guitar sound, but I guess you could say the same about their lyrical approach. I have always appreciated Slowdive and MBV because most pop lyrics are daft, and by submerging the vocals in the mix, those bands avoided that disappointment. Liz Fraser’s avant-garde lyric writing, which was then distorted behind recognition in her singing, was the same goodness.

Encountered "Pearly Dewdrops'-Drops" today, as part of a mix... what a terrific song (oddly titled though it is). I tried out some bits & pieces of their other early stuff, and wasn't feeling it as much... I'll have to keep trying, kept coming back to that one song.

try sampling the EPs as opposed to album tracks

If you like “Pearly…” specifically, then I’d recommend ‘The Pink Opaque’ which is a US compilation of key tracks from that era.

Thanks to both, those were good tips for finding a groove (this track "Millimillenary," dang...)

Wish I had been hip to this band in high school; they would have fit so tightly in my taste profile at the time.

(this track "Millimillenary," dang...)

so great and only available via the Pink Opaque comp, not released anywhere else which is a travesty obv

“Wax and Wane” remix is decent too, in that 80s 4AD dance mix vein

It also contains my favorite Cocteau’s track - “Aikea-Guinea”

"Aikea-Guinea" is my favorite CT track too :)

I think you would probably enjoy the album Head Over Heels, which is close in sound to "Pearly..", especially the song "Sugar Hiccup".

Thanks, will queue that up next (I'm almost thru The Pink Opaque this morning; "Aikea-Guinea" happens to be playing right now... great collection)

This group sure had a way with song titles! haha

That's all Liz Fraser. Wait till you see the ones on Blue Bell Knoll !

"Sugar Hiccup" was a good call!

I feel like the Sugarcubes def. took some inspiration here (tho I imagine this is a bog-standard observation)

I remember an early Sugarcubes interview where Björk said she often got compared to Kate Bush, Siouxsie Sioux and Liz Fraser.