This album is so good. No other record makes me feel quite like this one. Also I'm sure someone else will mention this, but the singer here is the woman who sings Massive Attack's "Teardrop"
Your last line is actually why I suggested he react to this! He was surprised to learn that fact since he already knew Cherry Coloured Funk. He mentioned enjoying her voice so I suggested he listen to a whole album.
Hey, I enjoyed watching you take in this album for the first time. I noticed a lot of people who react to this band struggle with the lack of understandable lyrics. I like to think of Cocteau Twins (pronounced “Cock-Toe”) as an instrumental band. The vocals are another instrument rather than something meant to convey lyrics. Elizabeth Fraser would often just string together words that she liked the sound of in order to get an emotion across. It frees up the mind of the listener to put their own meaning to the song based on the sound. I also wanted to mention that what you were thinking of as synths was actually guitar. Robin Guthrie would put certain effects on the guitar to give it that unique sound. The last thing I’ll mention is that in this style of music (“dream pop”), the idea is to make you feel like you are in a dream or some other world, which is why so much reverb and layering is used on most of the tracks. I can see where it might strike you as strange or off-putting at first if you are not used to that style of music, but it really does help create that otherworldly sound.
The abstract lyrics add to the dream pop aesthetics, there's no real meaning to them. Kinda like when you dream and you think you're having conversations, in actuality it's just gibberish but there's weirdly still emotion to it
Most of the songs on this album are about her baby daughter Lucy Belle whom she had recently given birth to. But also Liz Fraser is from the Falkirk region of Scotland which throws people. -- the vowels are all over the place and I can attest to this because I have lots of relatives from the working class Falkirk province so I can understand practically every word. She's singing English but not as you Americans know it! God bless Liz Fraser!
No she’s not though- One of the things she is best known for as an artist is how she often abandoned language in her music and instead chose to vocalize using a string of syllables and words that are meant to function more as an instrument. Rarely is she actually delivering coherent lyrics in her music because that was too limiting for her.
There's a strange and tremendously experimental album that I really liked, I have the impression that you might like it, My Blood Valentine, Álbum: Loveless
It was a joy to watch and listen to you make your way through this album - thank you for expressing your appreciation of a style of music that is definitely not mainstream and may not appeal to everyone. Since you enjoyed this later Cocteau Twins album, I will recommend some of the older material, especially these albums: The Pink Opaque (a fantastic collection of early material) Treasure (one of their best and most well known) Victorialand Basically, if you want to dive more deeply into their whole catalogue, you would be hard pressed to find an album that doesn’t move you in some way. These are definitely “mood pieces”, capturing something hard to put into words, which is in part due to Elizabeth Fraser’s way of stringing words, creating soundscapes, and sometimes, poetry. And her extraordinary vocal range and the accompanying music it seems to float on can be transportive, evocative, even transcendent… As always, a thoughtful and enjoyable listen/review. Keep up the great work! 💖🎶🎧 I would be remiss not to mention Elizabeth Fraser’s contribution to the wonderful This Mortal Coil albums, especially, “It’ll End In Tears”, notably, her vocal for Song of the Siren, originally written and performed by Tim Buckley (your review of his son Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” was also such a pleasure to watch). That song is so magnificently beautiful - see what you think… And, it has been used in more movie and tv soundtracks than I can recall.
I forgot to let you know about the lyrics 😅 You just have to ignore any lyrics you read because it's just people making guesses lol. So glad you picked up on the fact that lyrics take a backseat here and chose to appreciate the overall feel of the music and vocals instead. Liz didn't need discernible lyrics to convey emotions! She is that great.
I dont know if youve considered it, but some versions of some of the 'Eternal Sunshine' songs have released and they are - divine to say the least. Would love if you reacted to them!
Nice react man! Definitely a classic. You should do a reaction video to Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk , Lots of people are calling it album of the year it just released in August
This album is so good. No other record makes me feel quite like this one. Also I'm sure someone else will mention this, but the singer here is the woman who sings Massive Attack's "Teardrop"
Your last line is actually why I suggested he react to this! He was surprised to learn that fact since he already knew Cherry Coloured Funk. He mentioned enjoying her voice so I suggested he listen to a whole album.
Hey, I enjoyed watching you take in this album for the first time. I noticed a lot of people who react to this band struggle with the lack of understandable lyrics. I like to think of Cocteau Twins (pronounced “Cock-Toe”) as an instrumental band. The vocals are another instrument rather than something meant to convey lyrics. Elizabeth Fraser would often just string together words that she liked the sound of in order to get an emotion across. It frees up the mind of the listener to put their own meaning to the song based on the sound. I also wanted to mention that what you were thinking of as synths was actually guitar. Robin Guthrie would put certain effects on the guitar to give it that unique sound. The last thing I’ll mention is that in this style of music (“dream pop”), the idea is to make you feel like you are in a dream or some other world, which is why so much reverb and layering is used on most of the tracks. I can see where it might strike you as strange or off-putting at first if you are not used to that style of music, but it really does help create that otherworldly sound.
The abstract lyrics add to the dream pop aesthetics, there's no real meaning to them. Kinda like when you dream and you think you're having conversations, in actuality it's just gibberish but there's weirdly still emotion to it
Their music has made me cry. Her voice and the music combined has more emotion to me than many other groups that have lyrics that make sense.
Most of the songs on this album are about her baby daughter Lucy Belle whom she had recently given birth to. But also Liz Fraser is from the Falkirk region of Scotland which throws people. -- the vowels are all over the place and I can attest to this because I have lots of relatives from the working class Falkirk province so I can understand practically every word. She's singing English but not as you Americans know it!
God bless Liz Fraser!
No she’s not though- One of the things she is best known for as an artist is how she often abandoned language in her music and instead chose to vocalize using a string of syllables and words that are meant to function more as an instrument. Rarely is she actually delivering coherent lyrics in her music because that was too limiting for her.
There's a strange and tremendously experimental album that I really liked, I have the impression that you might like it, My Blood Valentine, Álbum: Loveless
have every album of theirs on vinyl, love the cocteau twins
It was a joy to watch and listen to you make your way through this album - thank you for expressing your appreciation of a style of music that is definitely not mainstream and may not appeal to everyone.
Since you enjoyed this later Cocteau Twins album, I will recommend some of the older material, especially these albums:
The Pink Opaque (a fantastic collection of early material)
Treasure (one of their best and most well known)
Victorialand
Basically, if you want to dive more deeply into their whole catalogue, you would be hard pressed to find an album that doesn’t move you in some way. These are definitely “mood pieces”, capturing something hard to put into words, which is in part due to Elizabeth Fraser’s way of stringing words, creating soundscapes, and sometimes, poetry. And her extraordinary vocal range and the accompanying music it seems to float on can be transportive, evocative, even transcendent…
As always, a thoughtful and enjoyable listen/review. Keep up the great work!
💖🎶🎧
I would be remiss not to mention Elizabeth Fraser’s contribution to the wonderful This Mortal Coil albums, especially, “It’ll End In Tears”, notably, her vocal for Song of the Siren, originally written and performed by Tim Buckley (your review of his son Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” was also such a pleasure to watch). That song is so magnificently beautiful - see what you think…
And, it has been used in more movie and tv soundtracks than I can recall.
Cherry-coloured Funk is the song of my life
If you hear singing stripped back then listen to Song to the Siren. A song she did under the guise of This mortal coil
I remember the first time I heard this album, what a good group.
I prefer their subsequent album "Four-Calendar Café". I strongly recommend it.
The lyrics that some people post are just guesses, not anything the band posted.
I forgot to let you know about the lyrics 😅 You just have to ignore any lyrics you read because it's just people making guesses lol. So glad you picked up on the fact that lyrics take a backseat here and chose to appreciate the overall feel of the music and vocals instead. Liz didn't need discernible lyrics to convey emotions! She is that great.
I dont know if youve considered it, but some versions of some of the 'Eternal Sunshine' songs have released and they are - divine to say the least. Would love if you reacted to them!
Nice react man! Definitely a classic. You should do a reaction video to Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk , Lots of people are calling it album of the year it just released in August
Bro really reading gibberish
great album
The "synth" you're talking about is distorted guitar.
*Coc-tow* Twins
8th video reqesting ghost pop tape
Classic album. Fotzepolitic is a grower, stick with it
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Jean Cocteau
French writer and visual artist