20. Wax and Wane (1982)<\/p>\n
At first, Cocteau Twins gave every impression of being a goth band: check out Wax and Wane\u2019s Banshees-esque ambience \u2013 the guitar is very John McGeoch \u2013 flanged bass and drum machine. But the chorus soars out of the metaphorical cloud of dry ice, and Elizabeth Fraser\u2019s voice is already outpacing her influences.<\/p>\n
19. Half-Gifts (1995)<\/p>\n
One of several intriguing new directions explored towards their career\u2019s end, the Twinlights EP offered the unlikely sound of Cocteau Twins more or less unplugged: set to piano, strings and a whisper of synth, Half-Gifts is entirely lovely. (If you prefer, there\u2019s an equally beautiful, sonically lusher version on their eighth and final album Milk & Kisses.)<\/p>\n
18. Those Eyes, That Mouth (1986)<\/p>\n
In an oeuvre filled with breathtaking moments, the point where the chorus of Those Eyes, That Mouth kicks in \u2013 when the guitar suddenly blooms into a sheet of ringing sound and Elizabeth Fraser hits a succession of high, shivering notes \u2013 is among the most breathtaking of all.<\/p>\n
17. Know Who You Are at Every Age (1993)<\/p>\n
More direct \u2013 and emotionally troubled \u2013 than anything Cocteau Twins had previously recorded, major-label debut Four-Calendar Caf\u00e9 was coolly received on release. But time has burnished its power: this album opener marries a languorous acoustic guitar to lyrics that unflinchingly describe being trapped in post-breakup grief.<\/p>\n
Cocteau Twins performing live, c1994. Photograph: Patrick Ford\/Redferns16. Pandora (For Cindy) (1984)<\/p>\n
You could view the Cocteau Twins\u2019 third album, Treasure, as a series of musical portraits \u2013 every track is titled after someone\u2019s name. Fraser\u2019s voice takes on a propulsive quality during the lovely Pandora (For Cindy), but the star here is the band\u2019s most underrated asset: Simon Raymonde\u2019s bass, delicately threaded through the track.<\/p>\n
15. Musette and Drums (1983)<\/p>\n
A moment from breakthrough album Head Over Heels where the Cocteau Twins\u2019 goth past still loomed large. Musette and Drums sets Fraser\u2019s new, more abstract vocal style amid a dark cloud of distorted guitar; the effect is powerfully ominous and brooding, not adjectives much applied to their subsequent output.<\/p>\n
14. Sea, Swallow Me (1986)<\/p>\n
A perfectly judged collaboration with the US composer Harold Budd, The Moon and the Melodies is a dream of an album. Largely comprised of melancholy, reverb-heavy instrumentals, here Fraser adds a note of exhilaration as her voice soars above Budd\u2019s treated piano and Guthrie\u2019s multi-tracked guitar on opener Sea, Swallow Me.<\/p>\n
13. Cico Buff (1988)<\/p>\n
In a more sane world \u2013 and indeed one where the band bothered to release any singles at all from their fifth album Blue Bell Knoll \u2013 the drowsy, contented, sunlit sigh of Cico Buff might have been a hit. Still, the good will ultimately out: it\u2019s currently enjoying viral ubiquity on TikTok.<\/p>\n
The band in 1993. Photograph: Dave Tonge\/Getty Images12. Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)<\/p>\n
Cocteau Twins\u2019 sixth album Heaven or Las Vegas may be the band\u2019s masterpiece: all of its tracks have a claim to be on this list. But the title track is a particular joy, a subtle tweaking of their sound that leaves it brighter and more commercial \u2013 that chorus! \u2013 without sacrificing the band\u2019s uniqueness.<\/p>\n
11. Rilkean Heart (1996)<\/p>\n
As with its predecessor, the Cocteau Twins\u2019 final album Milk & Kisses got a decidedly mixed response: more than one critic suggested the band were treading water. But it has its moments, not least the dreamy, cyclical melody of Rilkean Heart on which Fraser examines her relationship with Jeff Buckley.<\/p>\n
10. Bluebeard (1993)<\/p>\n
Bluebeard was a deeply improbable delight in a number of ways. Firstly, who in the 80s could have imagined a Cocteau Twins track audibly influenced by country music? Secondly, who would have thought they\u2019d ever come up with a lyric as incisive and direct as its examination of a collapsing relationship?<\/p>\n
9. Lazy Calm (1986)<\/p>\n
Victorialand is Cocteau Twins\u2019 most recumbent, ambient album. With Simon Raymonde absent, Fraser and Guthrie simply did without his bass and largely dispensed with rhythm tracks: there\u2019s a solitary bass drum on Lazy Calm, but its sax-assisted sound appears to float and drift along, appropriately languid and impossibly gorgeous.<\/p>\n
8. Pink Orange Red (1985)<\/p>\n
The pick of the eight songs on the twinned EPs Tiny Dynamine\/Echoes in a Shallow Bay, Pink Orange Red slowly builds from an intro featuring nearly a minute of a solitary echoing guitar, through a chorus that deploys Fraser\u2019s \u201cmouth music\u201d vocals to stunning effect, to a blazing, swooning climax of guitar.<\/p>\n
7. Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires (1990)<\/p>\n
Beneath the playful none-more-Cocteaus title lurks a serious song, written by Raymonde about his father\u2019s death. A famed 60s songwriter and arranger, he gets a suitably epic send-off: the song surges and ebbs, Fraser\u2019s voice is simultaneously weightless and soulful: her ability to convey emotion without (identifiable) words at its finest.<\/p>\n
6. Sugar Hiccup (1983)<\/p>\n
Head Over Heels was the album on which the Cocteau Twins came into their own: leaving the goth affectations behind, Fraser and Guthrie wrote songs that explored their burgeoning relationship in a sumptuous, dreamy rush of sound. The single Sugar Hiccup sounds ecstatic, cathartic, infectiously dizzy with love.<\/p>\n
5. Carolyn\u2019s Fingers (1988)<\/p>\n
Fraser described the Blue Bell Knoll album as the sound of the band \u201cgoing with the flow, without expectations\u201d, and you can hear it in the ecstatic Carolyn\u2019s Fingers: the sound is poppy but utterly their own; extravagantly rolling her Rs, you sense her delighting in what her voice can do.<\/p>\n
4. Lorelei (1984)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a surprisingly funky undercurrent to Lorelei \u2013 you could, at a push, dance to it, albeit in a like-no-one\u2019s-watching way. But its beauty lies in the interplay between the music \u2013 a murky cloud of guitar and synth \u2013 and Fraser\u2019s vocals, an awesome multitracked patchwork of gasps, coos, even snarls.<\/p>\n
Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser in 1983. Photograph: Kerstin Rodgers\/Redferns3. Aikea-Guinea (1985)<\/p>\n
More than any band, Cocteau Twins inspired the purple strain of music journalism mocked with the phrase \u201ccathedrals of sound\u201d. But how do you capture the shimmering, fluttering magic of Aikea-Guinea without florid metaphors? Perhaps in the more earthy terms deployed by Guthrie: \u201cIt pisses over most things we\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Cherry-Coloured Funk (1990)<\/p>\n
It says something about how far ahead of the game Cocteau Twins were that a sound they\u2019d begun exploring in 1983 sounded perfectly of-the-moment in the shoegaze era of 1990. But on Cherry-Coloured Funk, they outstripped their imitators: its shift from moody verses to enraptured chorus is divine.<\/p>\n
1. Pearly-Dewdrops\u2019 Drops (1984)<\/p>\n
You can argue for hours about whether it\u2019s their best track, but if you wanted to play someone who\u2019d never heard Cocteau Twins something that absolutely encapsulated their unique appeal \u2013 unintelligible lyrics, booming drums, chiming effects-laden guitar and all \u2013 Pearly-Dewdrops\u2019 Drops would be it. It\u2019s a blissfully melodic song blessed with an entirely extraordinary vocal performance by Fraser. Swooping, wailing, simultaneously utterly impassioned and completely incomprehensible, as if she\u2019s singing in tongues in some wild, beatific state. Cocteau Twins may have proved hugely influential \u2013 the entire subgenre of dream-pop exists in their shadow \u2013 but 40 years on, no one else has ever really sounded like this.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20. Wax and Wane (1982) At first, Cocteau Twins gave every impression of being a goth band: check…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-521611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}