Cocteau Twins

There are three people in the band, none of them are related, and none of them are named Cocteau. That’s the '80s for you. This mysterious and ethereal band out of England features the legendary angelic vocals of Elizabeth Fraser, who has also plied her trade with Future Sound of London, Massive Attack, and Peter Gabriel, among others. The beautiful chiming guitars, the lush, echoic production, and above all, that stunning voice singing, more often than not, nonsensical lyrics gives the music an otherworldly sheen. Some of the tracks seem vaguely Middle Eastern or Russian, and some of them sound distinctly not of this earth.

Cocteau Twins is the most successful band to come out of independent British label 4AD’s commitment to adventurous sonic experimentation. Virtually all of 4AD’s albums were packaged by the edgy 23 Envelope graphics firm – who aimed to do with graphics what 4AD was doing to music – and the two companies produced a marvelous series of records during the '80s that were as beautiful to look at as they were to listen to and provided - or, at least, reflected - much of the visual look of the growing goth movement.

This is my favorite of the dozen or so Cocteau Twins albums to come out over the past 20 years. Their early work was much more abrasive and dissonant, and is just a little too edgy for me to listen to for very long. Their later work drops some of their precious exoticness and, while Elizabeth still sings beautifully, she actually started singing clearly enunciated words that made sense (more or less) and a lot of the magic spell was broken. This album is right at the peak of their Cocteauness. This track sounds slightly Slavic to me, and Fraser’s glossolalia is in peak form – singing syllables for the pure musical mouth-feel and with scant regard for meaning, something which is actually extremely difficult to maintain for very long. I love the end, when the percussion finally crashes in with incredible force as her voice soars into the stratosphere. The rest of the album is every bit as good and it fully lives up to its title, Treasure.