(Donāt worry, itās not an 8,000 word essay this time)
Cocteau Twins are by far the most important band of my late adult life; I only discovered them three or four years ago and of all the new/new-to-me music Iāve heard in the last decade, theyāre pretty much the only band Iāve fallen completely head-over-heels in love with, like teenage obsession levels of love. They were at the end of their active years when I was young, but obviously theyād fallen completely out of fashion in the mid-90s because I donāt reecall reading a single word about them in the music press despite being an avid Vox/Select etc reader in 1996, when Milk & Kisses came out. I think the first CT material I got was Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay, and they really didnāt strike me as being particularly interesting. But for some reason I got Heaven or Las Vegas as well, and then things clicked.
At their best, Cocteau Twins have written some of the most swooningly gorgeous, life-affirming music Iāve ever heard. Liz Fraserās voice is a force to be reckoned with; sheās easily one of the greatest singers of all time, and itās no surprise my favourite CT songs are those where choirs of multi-tracked Lizzes coo and sweep and soar over each other. Iād also take Robin Guthrie over Kevin Shields when it comes to baffling and otherworldly guitar noises, because his are prettier.
Still, I have reservations and ever-so-slightly hot takes on Cocteau Twins some have disagreed with in the past. I donāt think they ever released a perfect album - the early contenders are a little too goth and have too much of that boomy 80s sounds I find a little jarring, and all of their canon classics contain songs I find pretty boring and skippable. Theyāve also released a surprisingly large amount of outright boring material - the aforementioned Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay still do pretty much nothing for me, and Four Calendar Cafe is mostly nondescript beige. Usually a band have to release at least one perfect album for me to award a 5, and Cocteau Twins havenāt done that. They do have five or six very good to near-perfect albums, which puts them as close to a 5 as you can possibly get without actually reaching it ā
And then I take into account their non-album singles. My goodness, this is where Cocteau Twins grab that five and run away with it. Sunburst and Snowblind. The Spangle Maker. Aikea-Guinea. Loveās Easy Tears: four of the greatest EPs ever made, fifteen songs of utter perfection and only one of them made it onto a studio album. Later singles with throwaway yet stellar B-sides most bands would die to write once in their lifetime. My commuting Cocteau Twins playlist (a mixture of my favourite singles, B-sides and album tracks) is always slightly in flux; itās usually about 2.5 hours long and itās probably the greatest 2.5 hours of music Iāve ever heard. Other bands exceed them by far in the depth of A-grade material they produced, but Iām not sure anybody has bettered my core ācanonā of CT songs (not even Spiritualized or R.E.M., which for me is pretty much the most praise I can offer)
Some album thoughts:
Garlands: I should listen to this more. Itās not bad, itās just not really my thing. Iām not a huge fan of goth or post-punk as genres, so yeah, it leaves me a little cold. I see the promise, but itās not there yet.
Head Over Heels: I appreciate this album more and more as time goes on. The songs are uniformly excellent, but the sound is still a bit too harsh, stereotypically abrupt and gated 80s for me to truly love it. Sugar Hiccup is pretty much the perfect song. Utter heaven.
Treasure : getting closer to perfect, and sounding a lot more otherworldly than the last two albums. When I think of the highlights ā Ivo, Lorelei, Aloysious, Donimo ā I understand why people consider this their greatest album, but for me thereās a couple too many dull moments mid-to-late album to earn that accolade.
Victorialand: really, really, really good, one of their most consistently wonderful listens, yet for some reason my brain doesnāt quite count it as a proper CT album, perhaps because Simon Raymonde is elsewhere. Still, Lazy Calm and Fluffytufts in particular deserve slots on any greatest CT song list.
The Moon and the Melodies: I am very fond of this album, but I canāt really highlight any individual songs as standouts, and again, it doesnāt properly count as part of their canon in my mind.
Blue Bell Knoll : This is much closer to the perfect CT sound Iām looking for, and apart from a couple of slight songs in the middle, itās a hugely strong album. Lizās voice spiralling ever upward in Athol-Brose, Carolynās Fingers ā chorus, the lullaby beauty of For Phoebe Still A Baby, the (most perfect ever) key-change at the end of Ella Megalast Burls Forever ā¦ the best moments here are among their best moments full stop.
Heaven Or Las Vegas: Again, so close to being perfect but falling short. Why? ācos sorry, but Fifty-Fifty Clown and Road, River and Rail fall far below the standard the rest of the album sets. Iāll have to whisper it, but Cherry Coloured Funk is pretty overrated as well. But if you could distil giddy joy into musical form, the end result would be Iceblink Luck, Heaven or Las Vegas and Fotzepolitic, and Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires is a deeply haunting, almost traumatic ending to the album.
Four Calendar Cafe: mostly dull, but Bluebeard is a lovely song and Pur is up there with their best. I like the B-sides better, particularly Mud & Dark and Summerblink, which are both so colossally superior to their parent single itās hilarious.
Milk & Kisses: another possibly controversial opinion: this isnāt the best Cocteau Twins album, but itās probably my favourite. Itās not even close to ground-breaking, but itās a near-flawless set of songs recorded in a mid-90s style my ears find much easier to get on with than their early 80s material. Thereās only one duff song on the album - Ups - and I set the best material up there with all of their canon classics. Violaine and Tishbite are incredible songs, two of their greatest singles, Half-Gifts is so harrowing yet hopeful it hurts, Treasure Hiding is one of the best album-closers-that-doesnāt-actually-close-an-album I can think of, and the actual closer - Seekers Who Are Lovers - is another heartbreaking masterpiece.
Anyway, thatās probably enough for now. Cocteau Twins are one of the most baffling, intriguing and downright wonderful bands Iāve ever heard, and despite flaws Iād normally associate with a 4-level band, their high points are so impossibly high ā at its greatest, higher than any other music reaches ā they canāt get anything less than a big olā 5 from Ella. I didnāt change my username to a bastardised (and cooler) version of a CT song for nothing, and my best bike shares the same appellation 
Oh yeah, happy new year BTW
