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'Cocteau Twins' were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1982 to 1997.

Contents

Early years

Mid-80s

Early 90s

Mid-90s and the breakup

Life after Cocteau Twins

Discography

Albums

EPs and Singles

Compilations

Live performances

References

External links

Early years

Robin Guthrie (guitar) and Will Heggie (bass), both from Grangemouth, Scotland, formed the band in 1980. At a local disco, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who eventually provided vocals.
The band's influences at the time included Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols and Siouxsie & The Banshees. The band were named after the song ''The Cocteau Twins'' by fellow Scotsmen 'Johnny and the Self-Abusers' (who later renamed themselves Simple Minds; the song "The Cocteau Twins" was also re-penned as "No Cure"). Their debut recording, ''Garlands'' (released by 4AD Records in 1982), was an instant success, as was the subsequent ''Lullabies'' EP. They themselves remain influential to aspiring post-punk acts today.
Although the entire band was praised for their performances, Fraser received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music. All Music Guide reviewer Ned Raggett writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."^[1]

Mid-80s

Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, ''Peppermint Pig'' (and subsequently joined Lowlife). The band's sound on its first three recordings relied on the combination of Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalist guitar, and Fraser's voice; Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, ''Head over Heels'', had to rely solely on the latter two. This led to the growth of Cocteau Twins' characteristic sound: Fraser's voice, by turns ethereal and earthy, combined with Guthrie's heavily effected guitars. (Guthrie has often said that he is far more interested in the way the guitar is recorded, than in the actual notes being played, though he later admitted the effects and layering were due to his own technical inabilities.) Like its very dissimilar predecessor, ''Head over Heels'' was well-received by the public and press.
In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project (this spawned a cover-version of Tim Buckley's ''Song to the Siren'' performed by Guthrie and Fraser), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as bass player.
With Raymonde, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs that explored their new style. These included ''The Spangle Maker'' (1984), ''Treasure'' (1984), ''Aikea-Guinea'' (1985), ''Tiny Dynamine'' and ''Echoes in a Shallow Bay'' (1985), and ''Love's Easy Tears'' (1986). Raymonde, who was called in to work on the second album by This Mortal Coil, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, ''Victorialand'' (1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Raymonde returned to the group for ''The Moon and the Melodies'' (1986), a collaboration with ambient composer Harold Budd, which was not released under the Cocteau Twins name. The Moon and the Melodies is most noteworthy for the majestic composition entitled She Will Destroy You.
In 1985, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of Cocteau Twins' releases in the US and other territories. To commemorate the event, the compilation ''The Pink Opaque'' (1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back-catalogue.
While remaining a 4AD band internationally, Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, ''Blue Bell Knoll'', in October of that year.

Early 90s

The style the group had begun exploring with ''Head over Heels'' reached its peak on ''Heaven or Las Vegas'', released in late 1990. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the higher reaches of the UK charts immediately after its release. However, despite the success of the record and the subsequent concert tours, not everything was well with the band. They parted ways with 4AD following ''Heaven or Las Vegas'' partly because of conflicts with the label's founder Ivo Watts-Russell, and were close to breaking up over internal problems due in large part to Guthrie's addiction to drugs and alcohol.
While on their international tour supporting ''Heaven or Las Vegas'', the group signed a new recording contract with Mercury Records subsidiary Fontana for the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their US relationship with Capitol. In 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1990, and also included a bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material.
The band's seventh LP, ''Four-Calendar Café'', was released in late 1993. It was a departure from the heavily-processed, complex and layered sounds of ''Blue Bell Knoll'' and ''Heaven or Las Vegas'', featuring clearer and more minimalistic arrangements. This, along with the record's unusually comprehensible lyrics, led to mixed reviews for the album: Some critics accused the group of selling out and producing an 'accessible album,' while others praised the new direction as a felicitous development worthy of comparison with ''Heaven or Las Vegas''. The band themselves explained that ''Four-Calendar Café'' was simply a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser undergoing psychotherapy. The two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989.

Mid-90s and the breakup

1995 saw the release of two new EPs: ''Twinlights'' and ''Otherness''. The former consisted of four gentle acoustic songs, recorded with only piano, acoustic guitar and voice; ''Otherness'', by contrast, was a collaboration with Seefeel's Mark Clifford, and featured four electronic remixes of both older and then-unreleased Cocteau Twins songs. Both EPs were labelled 'experimental' by the press, since they were very different from the EPs the band had released in the past.
As it turned out, some of the tracks on both ''Twinlights'' and ''Otherness'' were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, ''Milk and Kisses'' (1996). The record was hailed as a "return to form" by some as it saw the return of more heavily layered guitars, and Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely. Nevertheless, reviews were, for the most part, somewhat mixed. Two singles were taken from the album: ''Tishbite'' and ''Violaine''; both exist in two CD versions, with different b-sides included on each. The band, augmented by an extra guitarist and a drummer, toured extensively to support the album - their last for Mercury/Fontana - and in live performances seemed to have found a cohesive freshness and power that had been lacking during their previous outing in 1993/94. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch", which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, became the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. It was also one of the two songs written and arranged by Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde for Chinese pop singer Faye Wong for her Mandarin album ''Fu Zao'' released in June 1996, the other being "Tranquil Eye" from ''Violaine'' released in October 1996.
In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth LP, the trio suddenly disbanded over irreconcilable differences in part related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that they will likely never be finished or released in any form.( In the same year Guthrie and Raymonde wrote and performed a new song in Faye Wong's ''the same name'' album.)
Fans of the group were not however, left entirely empty-handed. In 1999, Bella Union, the record label founded by Guthrie and Raymonde, released a double-CD Cocteau Twins compilation entitled ''BBC Sessions''. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with rare and unreleased material included. In 2000, 4AD released ''Stars and Topsoil'', a compilation of selected songs picked by the band members that had been released during their years with 4AD; all recordings had been digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed ''Stars and Topsoil'' with the release of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs.

Life after Cocteau Twins

The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. In addition to forming Bella Union, Guthrie and Raymonde have produced releases from new bands signed to that label.
Simon Raymonde released the solo album ''Blame Someone Else''. He also produced the posthumous album by Billy Mackenzie from the Associates, then went on to produce several Domino Records' artists like James Yorkston, Archie Bronson Outfit (who he later managed) and Clearlake. More recently he has produced the popular UK band The Duke Spirit and has mixed the Mercury Prize nominated album ''The End Of History'' by Fionn Regan.
Robin Guthrie released his first solo effort ''Imperial'' and continues to create music with his band Violet Indiana and has scored the music for the movie ''Mysterious Skin''. He also reunited with Harold Budd to collaborate on two companion CDs: ''Before The Day Breaks'' and ''After The Night Falls''. These pieces can be viewed as a continuation of ''The Moon and the Melodies'' and the score for ''Mysterious Skin''.
Elizabeth Fraser provided vocals for three songs on Massive Attack's ''Mezzanine'' in 1998 (as well as touring with them several times), for the Academy Award-winning ''Lord of the Rings'' film soundtracks, as well as for other, lesser-known projects and groups. For some time, she has been working on a solo album.
On January 312005 Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 302005, and later indicated that additional tour dates through the fall would be added. On March 16, however, the reunion was canceled, with Fraser pulling out for "personal reasons", and leaving numerous fans out of pocket in terms of air fares and canceled accommodation.
In 2006, 4AD released a limited edition compilation box set ''Lullabies to Violaine'', a 4-disc set that details every single and ep released from 1982-1996. This was shortly followed up by two 2-disc sets of the same names, known as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Since March 2007, the band has started airing podcasts holding exclusive material.^[2]

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	UK	US	Additional information
1982	''Garlands''	-	-	debut album
1983	''Head over Heels''	51	-	-
1984	''Treasure''	29	-	-
1986	''Victorialand''	10	-	-
1986	''The Moon and the Melodies''	-	-	recorded with Harold Budd
1988	''Blue Bell Knoll''	15	109	-
1990	''Heaven or Las Vegas''	7	99	-
1993	''Four-Calendar Café''	13	78	-
1996	''Milk and Kisses''	17	99	-

EPs and Singles

Year	Title	UK	US Modern Rock	Additional information
1982	''Lullabies''	-	-	EP
1983	''Peppermint Pig''	-	-	EP
1983	''Sunburst and Snowblind''	86	-	EP
1984	''Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops''	29	-	EP entitled ''The Spangle Maker''
1985	''Aikea-Guinea''	41	-	EP
1985	''Tiny Dynamine''	52	-	EP
1985	''Echoes in a Shallow Bay''	65	-	EP
1986	''Love's Easy Tears''	53	-	EP
1988	''Carolyn's Fingers''	-	2	from the album ''Blue Bell Knoll''
1990	''Iceblink Luck''	38	4	from the album ''Heaven Or Las Vegas''
1990	''Heaven Or Las Vegas''	-	9	from the album ''Heaven Or Las Vegas''
1993	''Evangeline''	34	-	from the album ''Four Calendar Café''
1993	''Snow''	58	-	"Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman"
1994	''Bluebeard''	33	-	from the album ''Four Calendar Café''
1995	''Twinlights''	59	-	"acoustic" EP, voice and piano
1995	''Otherness''	59	-	EP of songs remixed by Mark Clifford of Seefeel, companion to ''Twinlights''
1996	''Tishbite''	34	-	from the album ''Milk and Kisses''
1996	''Violaine''	56	-	from the album ''Milk and Kisses''

Compilations

Year	Title	UK	US	Additional information
1985	''The Pink Opaque''	-	-	compilation album
1991	''Cocteau Twins''	-	-	ten-disc box set consisting of all EPs up to that point and one disc of bonus material
1999	''BBC Sessions''	-	-	compilation album
2000	''Stars and Topsoil''	-	-	compilation album
2005	''Lullabies to Violaine: Singles and Extended Plays 1982-1996''	-	-	limited edition, four-disc box set of all non-album tracks.
2006	''Lullabies to Violaine, Volume 1:''Singles and Extended Plays 1982-1990''	TBD	TBD	first two of four discs in box set shown above.
2006	''Lullabies to Violaine, Volume 2:''Singles and Extended Plays 1993-1996''	TBD	TBD	last two of four discs in box set shown above.

Live performances

See Cocteau Twins performances.

References

1. "Heaven or Las Vegas" song review
2. Cocteau Twins offer previously unreleased live tracks via podcast

External links

★ Official Cocteau Twins website (cocteautwins.com)

★ The Cocteau Cafe (cocteautwins.org)

★ UK Cocteau Twins website (cocteautwins.co.uk)

★ Cocteau Twins Podcast (podcast.cocteautwins.org)