30.09.24
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Our favourite artists according to their biggest fans.

Reddit’s r/cocteautwins moderator compiles the band’s most obscure music, underrated covers and surprising celebrity fans – from Arca and Prince samples to Robert Smith’s pre-wedding playlist and Winona Ryder’s Edward Scissorhands soundtrack.

Hi u/cookieintheinternet. Everyone thinks they know about the Cocteau Twins. But we’re not interested in the established narratives. We want to go deeper. What are the three key things that I might not know about this band? Go! 

1. The image on the album cover of Four-Calendar Café was designed by Walter Wick, best known as the photographer for the I Spy children’s books.

2. When Treasure, the band’s third album, was first released in Japan, it was renamed as 神々が愛した女たち (Women Whom The Gods Loved).

3. For the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings, Elizabeth Fraser sang in Quenya, an elven language, for Lament For Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring and Lament for Haldir in The Two Towers.

The band are famous for their own made-up language. What songs have the most disputed lyrical interpretation?

The song Heaven or Las Vegas is usually the most discussed since it’s one of their most popular. Elizabeth’s voice is so prominent and clear, despite the overlapping voices. It seems as if it should be easy to understand, yet there are dozens of different interpretations of the lyrics online.

What’s the biggest misconception about the Cocteau Twins or their music?

The biggest misconception is that there are no lyrics at all. 

There are nine albums and 11 EPs on Spotify. What’s the best album for 1. People coming in fresh, 2. People looking to stretch their knowledge? and 3. Go super, super deep? 

1. The Pink Opaque is the best album to start with since it was actually made as a compilation to introduce the American audience to the band in 1986. It contains some of the strongest and most essential material of the first years of the band, as well as the first track recorded with Simon Raymonde, Millimillenary.

2. Garlands, the debut album, is usually viewed as the odd one out since it’s so different from everything that came after. More of a post-punk vibe, the band received many comparisons to Siouxsie and the Banshees on this first release. Despite this, it contains fan favourites like Wax and Wane and Shallow Then Halo, and showcases Fraser’s already unique voice at only 17 years old.

3. The Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years compilation. It contains every B-side and EP from the era of the last two albums, as well as the only live performances on streaming.

Here’s a controversial one. Going by fan consensus, what’s the least liked album?

That would be Milk & Kisses, the last album.

What song is considered underrated in the fan community? Are there any B-sides that only true Cocteau heads would be clued in on?

Mizake the Mizan, Alice and Circling Girl are all non-album tracks that are considered some of the most beautiful they made. The most obscure tracks are not on streaming. Among others, these are the bonus tracks for Garlands, which include Dear Heart (featuring Cinder Sharp of Cindytalk), Need Fire (a song made for Judge Dredd), a live cover of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, music made for a Fruitopia ad, and a series of covers by Faye Wong.

OK, I’m ready to go down a YouTube rabbit hole. Any grainy but underrated performance footage out there? What’s your bookmarked Cocteau Twins performance?

There is a super rare TV performance of Pandora (For Cindy) from 1985 that was unaired at the time, and then unearthed in 2015 and remastered by a fan in 2017.

Another controversial one: have any bands covered the Cocteau Twins – and it be good! 

Yes! Besides the covers made by Faye Wong, Deftones did a great cover of Wax and Wane, Scottish artist C Duncan (of the Bella Union label founded by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie) did a beautiful acoustic cover of Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops, and the cover band Sugar Hiccup, who recently performed at the 2024 CocteauFest in San Francisco.

Are there any celebrity fans that might surprise us? Any clips of artists discussing the band?

There are many. Prince, who wanted them on his label and then sampled them in Martika’s Love… Thy Will Be Done, Arca, who sampled Beatrix in her Entrañas EP, and The Weeknd, who sampled Cherry-Coloured Funk in The Knowing. Robert Smith of The Cure, who said he listened to the band while getting ready for his wedding, Winona Ryder, who listened to them while filming Edward Scissorhands, David Lynch, who wanted the band to perform Song To The Siren in Blue Velvet, and Jane Schoenbrun, director of the A24’s I Saw The TV Glow, which features a fictional TV show named after The Pink Opaque.

 

What’s a fun fact we won’t know?

The Cocteau Twins had two singers for a couple of weeks – a woman named Carol that was shouted out in the inner sleeve of their first album with the words “Dear Carol, We shall both die in your rosary: Elizabeth”.

Are there any pieces of merch, vinyl or CDs that are considered extremely rare? What is your holy grail if you had unlimited funds?

Any original merch from when the band was together is rare and expensive, but super fan Leesa Beales (a.k.a. mmmender, co-founder of CocteauFest and cocteautwins.org), had a private collection so extensive that she had stuff the band themselves didn’t have – like limited edition promo CDs and live bootlegs, some compiled by her. My holy grail would be The Box Set from 1991, which contained all of their EPs and singles at the time of release and came in a cute little red box.

And finally, beyond their official discography and all the music we’ve talked about, is there evidence of any unreleased tracks online (or offline)?

In short, no. The band was very economical with their output; all the songs they made were recorded and released as they needed them which meant they had no outtakes at all besides some scraps of guitar and drums. The material recorded for the scrapped album is so unfinished that Robin Guthrie said he would never release it. The only true song that was never released or recorded in studio was Objects D’Art, which was included in the original demo sent to John Peel and 4AD, and most likely will never be released either. 

A reissue of the Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd’s ‘The Moon and the Melodies’ is out now, for the first time on vinyl, via 4AD