Showing posts with label Cocteau Twins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cocteau Twins. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2017

Untitled - A Compilation

This is the track listing from the very first time I sat down to make a real mixtape.  I was probably 18 or 19, and had dabbled with taping my favorite songs off of the radio or other tapes.  But those other tapes were cobbled together with no rhyme or reason, just a hodge podge of miscellaneous tracks that I had put onto tape so I could listen to them in my Walkman when I was out.  I mean, you can't very well take a record player out with you.

At the time I made this tape, you can look at the track listing and see that a lot of fantastic material had been released pretty much all at once.  I had my favorite tracks from every album release by these artists, and I wanted to listen to them all, without having to haul 10-12 tapes/CDs around with me, trading them out as each track ended.  So, I pulled my favorites, and sat listening to them, then arranging them in a way that sounded good.  Back then, you didn't have any music on your computer (if you even had a computer), so it wasn't like you could load the tracks in your WinAmp and hit shuffle.  No, this was a very careful and deliberate process that took a while for me to come up with the right arrangement.

I made the tape, though, and used it in my car, listened to it while I mowed the yard, and played it when I went to friends' houses.  It was pretty good.

I've rearranged some of the tracks as years have gone by - only added the Ian McCulloch about 1998 and traded the Cocteau Twins track from Heaven Or Las Vegas to Dials (and then plugged it on the end of the mix).  But, as for the rest, this is the same setup I made back in 1990-91.  And, I still listen to it about every other month or so, to this day.  To me, this comp represents the best these groups had to offer, at the peak of their popularity.  Every song is quintessential to what these groups/artists are.  They are all lush, romantic, and full of emotion.  They are perfectly written, and perfectly performed.

To this day, I still don't have a name for this collection.  It's still, to this very moment, Untitled.  But, to me, that might be the best way of describing it, too.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Cocteau Twins - Four-Calendar Cafe - 1993

After the glorious Heaven Or Las Vegas, a lot of us CT fans were eagerly anticipating Four-Calendar Cafe, hoping for a continuation of the marvelous sound from the previous album.  Although a wonderful album, FCC was nowhere near being as good as HOLV.  Heaven Or Las Vegas was the Twins at their all-time high.  After that, it was Robin Guthrie getting high all the time.  His problem definitely showed in his work, as it suffered a lot.  It was all Elizabeth could do to keep the integrity of their sound intact.

There were quite a few good songs on this album, though.  Obviously, my favorite was Bluebeard, a pure pophook wonder.  For me, it harkens to Karen Carpenter in melody and performance.  A very special song.

This album has a special place in my heart, as it came out the same time my wife and I started dating.  When I listen to it, it reminds me of the days that we first shared with each other.  Her and I have a couple albums like this, in fact, but this one pulls specific memories that I love.  I remember listening to it one time when she was driving me to class at the University in the winter time.  Freezing outside, but her love kept me warm inside.

I've included the two tracks from the Snow single, along with the b-sides from the singles and the acoustic Bluebeard track (yuck).  I changed up the color of the cover to give it some more contrast, and make it look a little less muddled.  Of all the CT cover designs that they released, this one is my least favorite.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas - 1990

You're getting your daily update early, as I have to drive about 6 hours round trip to pick up my son tonight, and we'll be getting home late.

Cocteau Twins Heaven Or Las Vegas.  We all know and love it.  BY FAR this is the best of the CT albums ever.  This album brought them into the mainstream and gained a huge number of new fans, myself included.

I had heard some of their material before this album, but I could never get into them. They seemed a little too weird and  Elizabeth's vocals seemed a little TOO warbley and screechy.  She did a lot of scaling up and down, too, that I found to be rather annoying.

SO, my Senior year in High School, I see this pretty little cover sitting on the rack at my local music store.  It looked cool.  I was interested, but I passed it by.  I was driving down Holdrege Blvd several days later, listening to the local college radio station, and Iceblink Luck came on.  They didn't announce or introduce the song, it just rolled out after the previous song.  It instantly caught my ear, and I was in love, and I didn't even know who it was at the time.  After the song ended and they said it was the Twins, I was shocked.  THIS was something GOOD.

It took me all of an hour to get back to the music store and pick the disc up and put it in my car CD player.  It only took ONE TIME played through, and I knew it was a masterpiece.  One time.  It instantly moved into my top 20 albums of all time, and currently still resides in my top 50 albums of all time, 26 years later.

Unfortunately, there are only two b-sides from this album, and no remixes.  So, the b-sides are dropped between Side A and Side B, and you have all the tracks from Heaven Or Las Vegas.

If you haven't heard this album, you are in for a real treat.  I know you'll love it!

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Cocteau Twins - Milk & Kisses - 1996

Last post of the day, I bring you my SECOND favorite album by the Cocteau Twins.  Heaven or Las Vegas is my favorite.  This one is Milk and Kisses.  It's sad that it ended up being their last, as I feel it was their most cohesive in years, especially after the drama surrounding Four-colour Cafe.  The two singles were perfect pop hooks, and the rest of the album meshed beautifully.  Even the b-sides worked!

I prefer the remaster cover to the actual cover.  And, I don't know if there is an a-side/b-side, so I placed all the b-sides at the end of the disc.

It's a really warm album.  I was just listening to it right before I started writing this, and they are perfect!

Cocteau Twins - Milk & Kisses - 1996