It is barely 38 minutes long and turned 25 years old last month. On par with Treasure for Cocteau Twins at the apex of their craft, Heaven or Las Vegas is the first album of the group's that I listened to and fell in love with.

I was introduced when someone with whom I had a brief communication in the summer of 2002 sent me an MP3 copy of "Frou ( Read more... )

In all, Cocteau Twins had fifteen unique singles and extended plays to accompany their eight proper studio albums. Nine of these releases are included on the first two discs of Lullabies to Violaine. The remaining seven (which would be nine, had the two versions of Tishbite and Violaine not been re-sequenced as single EPs with song overlap ( Read more... )

Originally released in 2005 as a four disc set and then split into two volumes of two discs each, Lullabies to Violaine collects all of the odds and ends of Cocteau Twins’ discography. With very few notable omissions, all of the singles and extended plays are represented here. For a basic collector like myself who doesn’t like driving myself mad ( Read more... )

Released in October of 1988, Blue Bell Knoll found all three Cocteau Twins back together for a proper LP for the first time since Treasure. This was also the first Cocteau Twins record which received distribution in the United States (not counting the 1985 compilation The Pink Opaque).

When it was originally released, one could buy Blue Bell ( Read more... )

According to the group, this is not a Cocteau Twins record. On the group's website, in the discography section, it is listed under "Compilations, Collaborations & Special Appearances" along with This Mortal Coil's two 1980s LPs. When one rips the disc using Windows Media Player, the metadata auto-populates with the names listed in a different ( Read more... )

After seemingly solidifying their line-up with 1984's Treasure Cocteau Twins went back to being a duo for the 1986 follow-up, Victorialand. Elizabeth Frasier and Robin Guthrie are the core of the group on this record, as Simon Raymonde had been drafted to work on Filigree & Shadow, the second LP by This Mortal Coil. Raymonde would be back for The ( Read more... )

Released on November 1st, 1984 - exactly one year after Head Over Heals - was Cocteau Twins' third and probably most aptly named album: Treasure. Every group with a long discography has a "defining album," the one you tell newcomers to listen to first to gauge whether or not they will actually like a band (and whether or not said newcomer is to be ( Read more... )

Released in August of 1983, one year and two months after Garlands, Head Over Heels opens with a thunderclap of a drum machine beat. "When Mama Was Moth" is easily one of the Cocteau Twins darkest and most intense songs. It is heavy drumbeats, a swirl of Robin Guthrie's guitar distorted by flange and reverb and Elizabeth Frazier's voice wailing ( Read more... )

My daughter, Amélie turns two years old today, which was how old I became when the Cocteau Twins' 1982 debut LP, Garlands was released. The album was released in June, my birthday is in November. Garlands does not sound like a summer record.

Kind of like how Amélie doesn't seem like a summer baby. Compared to her big sister, Madeline, she's ( Read more... )

For this Off the Rack entry, I'm taking a break from the letter C to jump back and plug one of the holes missing from one of the other letters I've already listened through. Nestled in between several albums by The Beatles and a best of compilation by Berlin is a CD I purchased a few years ago because I was DJing a Halloween event and wanted to ( Read more... )