Line #38 Music/CocteauTwins


1	[[quoteright:400:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ct.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:400: Cocteau Twins in the 1980s. Left to right: Elizabeth Fraser, Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie.]]
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4	Cocteau Twins was a Scottish AlternativeRock band, known for being the TropeMakers and {{Trope Codifier}}s (along with Music/ThisMortalCoil and possibly Music/DeadCanDance) of the DreamPop genre.
5
6	Its members were:
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8	* Elizabeth Fraser - vocals
9	* Robin Guthrie - guitar, keyboards, drum machine programming
10	* Simon Raymonde - bass
11
12	The band was formed in 1979 by Guthrie, bassist Will Heggie, and Fraser. They took their name from the song "Cocteau Twins" by Johnny and the Self-Abusers (who you might know under their new name, Music/SimpleMinds), which is reported to have been about two men in Glasgow, Scotland, who had a reputation for being pretentious film snobs with a fondness for the works of Creator/JeanCocteau. They quickly obtained a record deal with Creator/FourADRecords, and their first album, ''Garlands,'' was a largely PostPunk album heavily indebted to their acknowledged influences: Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, Music/JoyDivision, Music/TheBirthdayParty, and Music/KateBush. It was an instant success.
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14	Heggie left the band in 1983, after a tour supporting their second EP, ''Peppermint Pig.'' Undaunted, Guthrie and Fraser recorded a new album, ''Head Over Heels,'' entirely on their own with producer John Fryer. It was with this album, that the band arrived at its SignatureStyle: Guthrie's [[EchoingAcoustics heavily echoed and processed]] guitars, combined with Fraser's powerful singing, creating an overall atmospheric sound.
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16	Guthrie and Fraser next contributed to 4AD's collective {{Supergroup}} Music/ThisMortalCoil, being the sole players on the highly acclaimed [[CoveredUp cover]] of "Song to the Siren" by Music/TimBuckley. It was during these sessions, that they met Simon Raymonde, who joined the group shortly thereafter as bassist, and remained with them until the end of their career.
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18	With the classic Fraser / Guthrie / Raymonde lineup now in place, the Cocteaus put out a long series of critically acclaimed albums and [=EPs=], that continued to refine their DreamPop style. The one anomaly in this series is the album ''Victorialand,'' which Raymonde did not contribute to, as he was busy working on the new This Mortal Coil album. As a consequence, ''Victorialand'' is a largely acoustic ambient dream pop album, featuring only vocals, reverbed guitars, and occasional saxophone (courtesy of Dif Juz member Richard Thomas).
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20	The band also began gaining attention across the Atlantic due to constant airplay on CollegeRadio, signing a contract with Creator/CapitolRecords in 1988 for US distribution. By this point, the relationship between the band, and 4AD president Ivo Watts-Russell had soured, and he dropped them from the label, after the release of the more accesible ''Heaven or Las Vegas,'' their most commercially successful album. Tensions also appeared in the band, due to Guthrie's drug and alcohol abuse, and the end of Fraser and Guthrie's romantic relationship.
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22	For their next move, the band signed with Creator/FontanaRecords for global distribution while remaining with Capitol in the USA. Their first album for the label, ''Four-Calendar Café,'' was recorded amidst continued turmoil, with Guthrie entering rehabilitation for substance abuse, and Fraser suffering a nervous breakdown. [[NewSoundAlbum It departed even further from their trademark complex dream pop,]] moving instead towards clear, conventional AlternativeRock. It drew a predictably mixed reaction. Their next album, ''Milk and Kisses'', returned to heavily layered guitars, and incomprehensible lyrics.
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24	The band broke up in 1997 while recording a new album, due to irreconcilable differences. All three members have gone on their own ways, with Raymonde and Guthrie focusing on producing for other artists, and recording solo albums. Shortly before the band's breakup, Raymonde and Guthrie founded the record label Bella Union, which went on to release albums by indie rock and folk acts like Music/FleetFoxes, Music/FatherJohnMisty, Music/TheWalkmen, and Music/TheFlamingLips.
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26	Fraser has had the most public exposure since, due to her vocal contributions to Music/MassiveAttack's song "Teardrop", and "Lament for Gandalf" off Music/HowardShore's soundtrack for ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', but has otherwise stayed in a sort of semi retirement, only rarely releasing new material.
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28	The band were supposed to reunite for the 2005 Coachella Festival, but Fraser pulled out for "personal reasons".
29	----
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31	!! Discography:
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33	* ''Garlands'' (1982)
34	* ''Lullabies'' EP (1982)
35	* ''Peppermint Pig'' EP (1983)
36	* ''Head Over Heels'' (1983)
37	* ''Sunburst and Snowblind'' EP (1983)
38	* ''Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops'' EP (1984)
39	* ''The Spangle Maker'' (1984)
40	* ''Treasure'' (1984)
41	* ''Aikea-Guinea'' EP (1985)
42	* ''Tiny Dynamine'' EP (1985)
43	* ''Echoes in a Shallow Bay'' EP (1985)
44	* ''Victorialand'' (1986) (made without bassist Simon Raymonde)
45	* ''Love's Easy Tears'' EP (1986)
46	* ''The Moon and the Melodies'' (1986) - collaboration with {{Ambient}} musician Harold Budd.
47	* ''Blue Bell Knoll'' (1988)
48	* ''Iceblink Luck'' EP (1990) - the title track would be featured on the released-soon-after ''Heaven or Las Vegas''.
49	* ''Heaven or Las Vegas'' (1990)
50	* ''Cocteau Twins Singles Collection'', aka the ''Dials / Crushed / The High Monkey-Monk / Oomingmak'' EP (1991) - the only non-album EP to not be included in the ''Lullabies to Violaine'' compilation.
51	* ''Evangeline'' EP (1993)
52	* ''Four-Calendar Café'' (1993)
53	* ''Snow'' EP (1993)
54	* ''Bluebeard'' EP (1994)
55	* ''Twinlights'' EP (1995) - acoustic album.
56	* ''Otherness'' EP (1995) - remix album.
57	* ''Milk and Kisses'' (1996)
58	* ''Tishbite'' EP (1996)
59	* ''Violaine'' EP (1996)
60	* ''Lullabies to Violaine'' (2005) - box set with all the band's singles and [=EPs=] plus some extra tracks with the ''Tishbite'' and ''Violaine'' sections, except for the aforementioned ''Dials'' EP.
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62
63	!! Tropes:
64
65	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: As an instance of Cocteau Twins' greater emphasis on the sounding of the lyrics, than on their literal meaning, in ''Treasure'' there are several songs in which, most of the words begin with a certain letter. In "Ivo" this letter is ''P,'' in "Pandora" it's ''F,'' and in "Aloysius" it's ''S.''
66	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Yet another way of looking at Fraser's lyrics. According to Guthrie, when they went on tour in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}, they learned that audiences there, had always thought she was singing in their language. By her own admission, the more abstract songs sometimes used random combinations of foreign words.
67	* BigThinShortTrio: Nail this trope to a T. Robin Guthrie is the Big one, Simon the Thin one, and Elizabeth the Short one.
68	* ChristmasSongs: ''Snow'' consists of cover versions of two secular Christmas standards, "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty The Snowman".
69	* CompilationRerelease: The ''Sunburst and Snowblind'' EP was appended to some CD and cassette copies of ''Head Over Heels''.
70	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: ''Four-Calendar Café'' features an elaborate collage of scattered objects designed by ''Literature/ISpy'' photographer Walter Wick.
71	* DreamPop: The TropeMaker.
72	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Garlands'', along with the ''Lullabies'', and ''Peppermint Pig'' [=EPs=], is PostPunk, as opposed to the band's reputation as DreamPop heroes, to the point where critics unfavorably compared them to Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees in contemporary reviews.
73	* EchoingAcoustics
74	* EightiesHair The band members, particularly Guthrie and Fraser, wore magnificent plumage in the '80s before noticeably toning down their hairstyles around the start of the '90s.
75	* EpicRocking: Shows up occasionally, such as with "It's All But an Ark Lark," "Donimo," and "Lazy Calm."
76	* GothRock: A TropeMaker (along with Music/DeadCanDance) for the Goth Rock subgenre, Ethereal Wave.
77	* HeartbeatSoundtrack: A particularly loud one starts off "When Mama Was a Moth" (and consequently, ''Head Over Heels'' as an album).
78	* LongestSongGoesLast: "Donimo" on ''Treasure'' and "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" on ''Heaven Or Las Vegas''.
79	** Also the case on ''Garlands'' and ''Four-Calendar Café'', but both only barely.
80	* LoudnessWar: Guthrie's remasters of the band's albums have been heavily criticised for this, with even fans advising others to seek out the original versions instead.
81	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Treasure'' brought some jazz and world beat influences in, making their sound even airier. ''Victorialand'', made without bassist Simon Raymonde, is almost an ambient album, with medieval music influences. ''Blue Bell Knoll'' boasted the fuller sound, and much more polished production, that characterized their last four albums.
82	* NonIndicativeName: There were three of them, none of them related, and none of them named Cocteau.
83	* OneWomanWail: Fraser's MO in the band, to the point where it could be argued she's singing in ''gibberish''. And it sounds ''awesome''.
84	* PerformanceVideo: Played with in the "Carolyn's Fingers" video: It's mainly shots of the members miming their parts on their own in front of backdrops, but occasionally the video will also cut to a reel-to-reel tape player: since the percussion track is a programmed drum loop, the video is depicting the machine as though it's a member of the band.
85	* SpeakingSimlish: As mentioned above, Fraser's style was this: Singing in gibberish or inaudible lyrics that can be compared to [[Music/MyBloodyValentine later shoegaze]] [[Music/{{Slowdive}} bands]].
86	* TheTheTitleConfusion: Not for the band themselves, who have always been consistent about not having a "The", but a lot of people add one in error. Even the song they're named after (an obscure early Music/SimpleMinds number) is just "Cocteau Twins", but that often gets misquoted too.
87	* SubduedSection: ''All'' of their work, bonus points for programmed drums.
88	* RecordProducer: Raymonde and Guthrie's other line of work. Guthrie, for instance, produced Music/{{Lush}}'s ''Spooky.''
89	* TranslatedCoverVersion: Faye Wong did a few of these on her albums, since she's a big fan of the band.
90	* TheUnintelligible: Fraser. Less so on ''Heaven or Las Vegas'' and ''Four-Calendar Café.''
91	* TitledAfterTheSong: Their name came from the rare Music/SimpleMinds song "Cocteau Twins," about two gay guys who were really into Jean Cocteau.
92	* WordSaladLyrics: Even if you ''can'' understand what Fraser is singing, you'll still be scratching your head at what it means.
93	* {{Word Salad Title}}s: ''Look at their discography'', with the exception of ''Treasure''.
94	* WorkingWithTheEx: A major reason why the band broke up, as Elizabeth Fraser didn't want to anymore.

Context Music / CocteauTwins