View Full Version : ALL TIME FAVOURITE ALBUM????
mmmender
May-15-02, 12:25 PM
i know it's like asking you to give up your first born - but if you had to pick just one cocteau twins album to be your absolute fave - what would you pick?
for me it's a serious toss up between treasure and holv but i'd have to say holv wins out.
mmmender
on balance, probably BBK, then maybe HOLV.. but also victorialand.. and treasure.. and.. :-)
Phil Lawton
May-16-02, 3:57 AM
HOLV or M&K. If "Violiane" and "Serpenskirt" were also on HOLV, then I'd definitely say HOLV.
P J Kane
May-16-02, 9:16 AM
absolutely definitely beyond any doubt, _Victorialand_ is my favorite thing to listen to, ever. i have listened to this album a few times a week every week since about 1988, and it still continues to amaze me. it is the perfect trance-inducing meditational disc.....
mmmender
May-16-02, 11:19 AM
sorry phil but m&k is my least fave of all the albums and ep's but together. i just think it's a very weak piece of work. there are however two amazing songs on the album......the very last two tracks "treasure hiding" and "seekers who are lovers" are fucking incredible songs!!! but i absolutely HATE (yes hate) serpentskirt, i always skip that track - always!!!!
Lupe64
May-17-02, 12:52 AM
I've always thought that BBK was my favorite, but looking at the track listings, I'd have to say that Road, river and rail tips the scales for HoLV. Summerhead is one of my favorite songs (my son swears it's their best). Unfortunately, FCC is the CD I play the least. (Thank goodness for homemade compilation tapes & CDs!)
Lupe
P.S. Leesa, I love the site's new look.
mmmender
May-17-02, 10:50 AM
lupe - agreed that bbk is an incredible album!! i too love RRR, great song....especially the way she sings that "mother's daughter" line (right ian?)
too bloody right leesa (or whatever you're called these days.. ;-) )
RRR is indeed a blinder of a song.
trouble with cocteau twins is that they never produced a really great complete album.. just several mostly very good ones albums (or partly good in the case of m&k). bit like most bands really though, to put it into perspective. (but not too much, obviously...)
let's not expect too much, these are mere mortals after all.. albeit with a fabulous voice, funky guitar or bass (as appropriate)!
sea_swallow_me
May-17-02, 10:35 PM
Gotta be the Pink Opaque...Or maybe Heaven or Las Vegas. Or the Moon and the Melodies...I guess it depends on what day it is.
cock-a-too twin
May-18-02, 2:15 AM
This is a very tough question. I got to say, for me, HOLV probably takes the cake. I like the mood of HOLV the best, however, every album seriously effects me in it's own way.
HOLV is my favourite CT album.Thank you God for the day you guided my hand on that LP.
shells
May-30-02, 12:28 AM
The Breath of God in my mouth.......
blue circles
Jun-4-02, 6:30 AM
Mine would be Blue Bell Knoll.
Well my favorite is also Blue Bell Knoll closely followd by Treasure and Victorialand
Fred
Steven K. de la Vaux
Jun-6-02, 4:57 PM
I used to think HLV, but lately I think FCC is up there, despite many thinking FCC was a weak album by the cocteaus. I think production wise, that is one of there best, if not there best. The mixing on that album is brilliant. So, I'm sitting on the fence betweeen HLV and FCC.
Steven, I agree about the mixing of FCC, from that perspective,and with the right mood, FCC is my fav..but aside from that it is too hard to pick one..when HolV, BBK and Victorialand are all around..
Hard question to ask but someone has asked me the "if I were stranded on an island, which album would I want to have with me" question. I keep going back to BBK because the vibe of the whole album is so comforting. I am absolutely freakish about that album -- I listen to it often. Have so since I bought the damn thing.
HOLV -- How could I do without that tho?
And Twinlights BLEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW me away -- The version of half gifts left me speechless -- hell that whole damn EP thing left me breathless -- I was transported the very first time I heard Twinlights
:o) I don't think a week has gone by that I don't listen to something from CT. I am amazed to this day the hold this band has on me.
Even tho it wasn't an album -- Twinlights had quite an impact on me.
Two years ago, at age 31, I had a bit of a bad year. I got my heart broken by a man I was truly in love with. I mean B-R-O-K-E-N in every sense of the word. Now as man who works as a police officer (yep everyone knows I'm gay, approves and is supportive probably cause I'm a big bear of a guy and I scare them a litte LOL), I'm someone who prides himself on keeping his emotions in check and not letting them get the best of me but I never knew that a heart could feel that way....or get broken that way.
Twinlights was something I would put on to actually calm me down when I started thinkin about what went wrong. It took me a while to understand what Ms. Fraser was saying at the end of Rilkean Heart and when I figured it out....it was an epiphany to me. "I have my friends, my family, I have myself, I still have me." Pretty great words when you really think about it.
You wouldn't think that a guy like me would like a band like the Twins but their music has often inspired me through tough times like coming out to friends and family, losing my Mom and just life in general. Having a job like I do can make you very cynical so a guy needs to have something that brings him back to a calmer world and strangely enough --the Twins do the trick. I have actually gotten a couple of my buddies on the force to listen to them. Needless to say, they have become fans.
I put the Twins on when I'm happy, when I'm blue, when I'm inspired, when I'm pissed off, when I'm pensive. They are one of the best bands around even if they are broken up. They are therapy for the soul and besides I can shake my moneymaker as best as a guy like me can on songs like Iceblink Luck and Summerhead. LOL
I haven't put the Twins on in a couple of weeks, I think the selection tonight will be Blue Bell Knoll.
Christian Secondis
Jun-17-02, 7:22 AM
Do any/all the tracks on the 'Twinlights' EP crop up on any other CT release(s)?
And it's hard to pick out a favourite CT LP when most are all equally great, but for me it's a toss up between 'Milk & Kisses' and 'Heaven or Las Vegas', which in my opinion contain their most beautiful and 'heavenly'(!) tracks...
Phil Lawton
Jun-17-02, 7:55 AM
Christian
"Pink Orange Red" appears on the "Tiny Dynamine"/Echoes In A Shallow Bay" double EP. "Rilkean Heart" and "Half Gifts" both appear on "Milk & Kisses". "Golden Vein" also appears on the "BBC Sessions" release.
Christian Secondis
Jun-18-02, 5:23 AM
Phil
Thanks for the clarification. It's a bit of disparate collection of tracks. Was it intended as a kind of random compilation sampler?
Christian Secondis
Jun-18-02, 5:27 AM
My previous entry was further to the earlier 'Twinlights' question and not 'Tishbite'. Apologies for any confusion caused!
Phil Lawton
Jun-18-02, 6:27 AM
Christian
Hmm...not so much a sampler 'per se', more of an experimental effort. "Pink Orange Red", "Half Gifts" and "Rilkean Heart" appear in a different form on "Tiny Dynamine" and "Milk & Kisses" respectively - "Twinlights was a sort of "Cocteau Twins Unplugged". There are some who prefer this version of the songs...personally, I feel that there's no substitution for the original of "Pink Orange Red", as it's one of my all time favourites (as are the EPs it comes from).
You might also like to check out (assuming you don't have it) the "Otherness" EP. This has to be (after "Garlands") the Cocteau CD I could live without quite easily. It has remixes of four tracks ("Feet Like Fins", "Seekers Who Are Lovers", "Violaine" and "Cherry Coloured Funk") in a techno-type manner and is, in this correspondent's opinion, as weak as a vicar's handshake.
Christian Secondis
Jun-18-02, 8:24 AM
Phil
Ta for the further info. I wasn't previously aware of the 'Otherness' EP. Was this a CT project? The 'techno' approach sounds very un-CT...
Are 'Twinlights' and 'Otherness' currently available from the usual outlets or is it best to go to the collector's market(both EPs seem rare-ish...?)
Phil Lawton
Jun-18-02, 8:50 AM
Christian
Yeah, the "Otherness" EP was a CT project (however misguided it was in my opinion). You'll have to hunt around for this and "Twinlights" - the omnipresent E-Bay is usually a good source, although some of the smaller retailers with a web-presence can often help. Pay no more than £7 for "Twinlights" and about £6 for "Otherness". Nice artwork, though.
A CD to borrow (heed my words) and NOT to buy is the "Dark Treasure" album, which is a CT tribute. It made me laugh out loud (literally) bar one track (which I think is the cover version of "The Thinner The Air", which was quite good). I was fortunate to have a copy of it made by a good mate of mine before I shelled out the £15 most outlets are asking for it...he thought it was pure crapola, too.
Christian
Jun-18-02, 9:10 AM
Phil
Cheers for that. I'll have a look see for those items. I guess they've got to be heard...
I was aware of the 'Dark Treasure' tribute, which I gather features mainly 'gothic' interpretations of CT favourites. One can see why this concept might be flawed at the outset. I have been informed by other CT contacts that said 'tribute' was a musical travesty and actually one to avoid. I wonder whether CT got royalties from the versions therein? Indeed, one wonders whether members of CT have heard said tribute? It would be interesting to hear their views, and those of the wider CT community who may have the (mis)forture to have heard this well-intentioned but ultimately abysmal 'tribute'.
Phil Lawton
Jun-18-02, 11:26 AM
Christian
Yes, CT would have received royalties, but I doubt they'd have bought a week's shopping with the proceeds. Other than the one track I mentioned, it's truly, awesomely bad. "Persphone" gave me the biggest laugh.
Definitely Blue Bell Knoll. In my mind, it is their masterpiece.
I realize that opinions vary, and that CT themselves don't regard that one as one of their better efforts, but I don't care. HOLV and Treasure come next on my list.
As Kevin said, I am amazed also how much of a hold on me this band has. In college, between studying, I used to put them on, and just float for an hour or so. They're music can put me in a trance and chill me out like nothing else.
I saw them in '94(?) in Boston at the Orpheum for FCC. Absolutely intense and amazing. (And LOUD!!! My God, I thought my ears were gonna explode!) Unfortunately, it was then that I realized I needed glasses. Liz's face was a blur! One striking memory I have of that concert was when they played "Blue Bell Knoll"... it was so intense... The strobes lit up the audience... I could see a lone girl dancing like a crazed lunatic in one of the balconies... It was completely cool!
This website is fantastic. All my friends are so into "disposable" music, and I have nobody to talk to about them. Sometimes I feel like I am the only fan of CT. I have a passion for them. It's nice to see I'm not alone.
-Matt
its impossible to say which album was there best, because theres so much to factor in, and considering the extreme diversity ,and constant change of their musical styles it makes it hard to compare one album to the next.
because with such a genius band like the cocteau twins, they can only be classified into seperate eras. i have practically all their releases (except violaine 2 and still looking). the tishbite singles and violaine singles should be released as a full album.
THIS WAS THE PEAK of one of the greatest bands to ever exist. Well thats being too opioniondated - but these are the albums i never can get too much of. i find it odd to feel practically the same about head over heals (with sunburst and snowblind included on the disc)
even though their musical stlye was at opposite ends of the pole. i find myself never getting enough of these two (or three) albums.
its impossible to say which album was there best, because theres so much to factor in, and considering the extreme diversity ,and constant change of their musical styles it makes it hard to compare one album to the next.
because with such a genius band like the cocteau twins, they can only be classified into seperate eras. i have practically all their releases (except violaine 2 and still looking). the tishbite singles and violaine singles should be released as a full album.
THIS WAS THE PEAK of one of the greatest bands to ever exist. Well thats being too opioniondated - but these are the albums i never can get too much of. i find it odd to feel practically the same about head over heals (with sunburst and snowblind included on the disc)
even though their musical stlye was at opposite ends of the pole. i find myself never getting enough of these two (or three) albums.
HOLV. Amazing sound. Seen me through some 'shitty days'....
But 'Otherness' is just fantastic (well, the first three tracks) - if you haven't heard it's a kind of surreal ambient thing with the bass turned up. Fantastic. I know it was largely down to Mark Clifford (Seefeel) getting his hands on the mix but it really showed a progression at a time where, God knows why, the press were saying they were treading water???!
ViNyL_PaNiC
Jun-23-02, 7:38 PM
I think I have to choose Victorialand (Milk & Kisses and Heaven or las Vegas are my other choices...)
stephanie kew
Jun-24-02, 2:41 AM
Would Stars and Topsoil be cheating? ;) I think mine is Milk & Kisses.. I agree, mmmender, the last two songs especially--Unreal. I'm also noticing that a lot of my faves are the last songs of the album.. like "Pur" "Frou-frou Foxes" "Ella Megalast Burls" "Seekers Who Are Lovers" --Aural orgasms!!!
Christian Secondis
Jun-24-02, 9:45 AM
It's got to be the Box Set!
Indeed impossible to say, and yes the hold on me CT has is amazing, I see I'm not alone in that. FCC may well be may desert island disc of choice. Victorialand has never worn off at all. HoL and BBK are close behind, but they don't have the same momentum for me as a whole.
yeah, good one about the box set..heh, I'd pick it for High Monkey Monk alone, but those mid-year leaving use with such gems as the songs Aikea Guinea, POR, & all of Echoes in a Shallow Bay(if we had to pick an single fav EP, that on the whole would be mine)..
i used to spend nights in my folks' garage, light-up the herb, sit behind the drum kit, put-on Blue Bell Knoll, and for a good sweat-drenching hour i was the cocteau's drummer. this album was musically revolutionary for me, as is Twinlights in it's powerful beauty.
Bluebell knoll is for me the strongest out of the 3 albums on which I love all of the tracks [ moon and the melodies and Victorialand are a close paired 2 and 3] w/ HoLV, and 4CC again tied for 4 and 5 and M&K just behind.
Otherness is beautiful, makes me wish they had done alot more of that kind of acoustic thing.
Milo D. Cooper
Jul-9-02, 2:53 AM
... Blue Bell Knoll.
It's their best album. That's an objective observation, and I'll tell you why:
1) Guthrie's skills as a producer and a musician, which were already formidable, finally matured to the point that he had obviously mastered separation and definition. Compared to their previous albums, the individual timbres were very mutually distinct (before BBK, they frequently melded together -- which is not a bad thing, in itself), and even apart from the technical prowess he exhibited, I think a lot of that had to do with the individual qualities of the sounds themselves, and the unique character that they maintained in songs that were, on the whole, more densely contrapuntal that pre-BBK songs.
Another way of putting it is to say that Guthrie finally got the full hang of having all his voices sing out without any one of them being unduly diminished by another. He had succeeded in this before (), but not on an album-wide scale, and not at the density of layered sound introduced by BBK. In fact, the increased richness of the Cocteau Twins sound exhibited on BBK might have forced him to achieve the skill that he evinces on that album.
Personally, I think he took a (perhaps unconscious) cue from Elizabeth. With his guitars, he did more of what she had been doing with her voice -- not literally, of course, but in a way idiomatic to his role in the band. In several places on BBK, the instruments go off on their own, and embellish the song -- as opposed to merely sustaining it -- without vocal support. This was not so common an occurrence on previous Cocteau Twins releases (excepting, of course, those tracks on which Elizabeth was silent throughout). On BBK, the instrumental music got a lot closer to, maybe even matched, the lyrcal definition and contrapuntal expressiveness of Fraser's vocals (again, in its own way), which had always been unsurpassed in the world of music in general (although Lisa Gerrard came close).
Additionally, the percussion on BBK is richer and more expressive than that on any album before or since, although a few tracks on M&K approach it.
2) Kick-ass, totally twee song titles! Although "Suckling the Mender" is a bit much (although it is, along with "Athol Brose," the best track on the album), song titles just don't get any better than "Spooning Good Singing Gum" and "The Itchy Glowbo Blow" and "Ella Megalast Burls Forever."
3) Liz Fraser, by some miracle, got even *more* dynamic (both in pitch and lyrically), *more* contrapuntal, and *more* harmonic with her vocals. It was disgusting. She had already been putting every vocalist except Lisa Gerrard to shame; BBK was the coup de grāce, the atom bomb. One woman was doing all this??
4) The mutual distinction of character between songs on a Cocteau Twins album reached its zenith with Blue Bell Knoll. No pervasive themes of goth or prettiness or Lucy Belle, here (not that those were bad things, at all); every song was unique. The title track was nervous and suspenseful, the very aptly-named "Athol Brose" got drunk, the sun came out with "Carolyn's Fingers," "For Phoebe Still a Baby" sang an incredible lullaby, "The Itchy Glowbo Glow" was afraid of the dark, "Cico Buff" was a child's new puppy, someone was hopelessly in love on "Suckling the Mender," someone lost something precious and grew tired of looking for it on "Spooning Good Singing Gum," "A Kissed Out Red Floatboat" sat in a swing, and "Ella Megalast Burls Forever" watched the boat sail away over the horizon.
I could come up with ten more definitions for those songs, and they would still all be mutually unique. The point is that BBK represented a spectrum of emotional abstraction of a sweep not achieved on any of their other releases (which is saying a lot, as you all know). With the exception of "Carolyn's Fingers" (which is a lot like one of the Twins' all-time best songs, "Orange Appled"), I don't even think I can name any real predecessors in the band's repertoire to any BBK songs.
Okay, I'm done now.
-- Milo D. Cooper --
at_every_age
Jul-9-02, 7:11 AM
Favorite CT album? Whatever I happened to be listening to that day, which recently has been BBN and M&K. "athol-brose" and "the itchy glowbo blow" are absolutely amazing. . .
David Thomas
Jul-15-02, 10:00 PM
Guess I oughta check in with mine:
1) BBK
2) Victorialand
3) Treasures
Kudo's Leesa on a great site!!!!
Jan-Wouter Stigter
Jul-16-02, 8:56 AM
Even after so many years, the first bars of 'Garlands' still send shivers down my spine... But I lost track somewhere along the line, and the many posts for other albums will make me have to catch up!
I feel impelled to speak up for Garlands here as no-one else has voted for it and I absolutely love it. But not more so than...HOLV or the Dynamine/Echoes combination (if it qualifies as an album).
curetwins
Aug-1-02, 4:03 PM
blue bell knoll
mr bigger
Aug-1-02, 8:20 PM
two tracks of all albums would make the best album ever
It has to be without a shadow of a doubt "Blue Bell Knoll".
It's the only album that gives me goospimples, though
"Heaven or Las Vegas" comes a close second. To me this is
when the Cocteau's peeked, and you just knew that when "Four Calendar Cafe" was released it just wasn't ever going to be as good as their previous two albums.
You never ever wanted them to split up, but sometimes you think maybe it came at the right time, because I feel they
were never going to better those late 4AD days. We look
forward to new things, I hope......
I can see how folks wouldn't like FCC as much if they wanted more of HoL or BBK...but I love it no less...not a bit. Really it is like a different point in life...it finds it appreciation(in me) at times least expected and there it is infinitely rewarding, as the others are in their own capacity.
pink_choirgirl
Aug-13-02, 12:06 AM
I find it strange that NOBODY bothered to mention head over heels!! This is the cocteaus at their heaviest and most spooky and I LOVE it. Of course, my favourite album changes all the time, but I just finished listening to HOH, and the march time beat from 'musette and drums' is still running through my ears. 'In Our angelhood', 'the tinderbox of a heart' and 'when mama was moth' are all some of their best. I guess after reading all of these posts, it is unanimous that HOLV, BBK, and treasure are the most loved. They should combine the album and call it "Heaven or Blue Bell Treasure' or something.
cya
john anderson
Aug-13-02, 2:24 AM
HOLV
it makes you want to have a child
john
maybe.. but if you called yours lucy belle he'd never forgive you. :-)
There's no such thing as an ATF album as far as the CTs are concerned. Head Over Heels is a close contender for me especially after I saw them at the Town & Country Club in London 1986. The Bass guitar on My Love Paramour made my bones rattle and left me deaf for a week and changed the way I listened to music(no, not via a hearing aid).What about the BBC sessions? Violaine sounds 1000 times better on this, you can feel the atmosphere on this track. However, thanks to comments of others I will revisit all albums with new ears.
Mark, I definitely like these topics because the reasons why people consider a favorite are more interesting to me than determining a favorite..mainly like hearing why people like what they like...
Had to think about it a bit, but it comes down to Treasure. It wasn't the first album of theirs I owned (that would be Pink Opaque and let me tell you getting their albums in Mississippi during the early '80s was no picnic) but its the one that has the most emotion attached to it for me. Whenever I hear Donimo I can't help but smile because it brings back memories of all my friends and wonderful nights of wandering the French Quarter at 4 in the morning during February watching the frost form on the buildings in Jackson Square and snuggling with my boyfriend. He still calls it our snuggling song.
Had to think about it a bit, but it comes down to Treasure. It wasn't the first album of theirs I owned (that would be Pink Opaque and let me tell you getting their albums in Mississippi during the early '80s was no picnic) but its the one that has the most emotion attached to it for me. Whenever I hear Donimo I can't help but smile because it brings back memories of all my friends and wonderful nights of wandering the French Quarter at 4 in the morning during February watching the frost form on the buildings in Jackson Square and snuggling with my boyfriend. He still calls it our snuggling song.
john anderson
Aug-21-02, 1:19 AM
i'm also a fellow southern fan of the twins i live in louisiana and there ain't alot of us round here in the dirty south. PO was the 3rd CT album i had on tape its gone now and i miss it since i now have all other cds i havn't purchased it again.
john
treasure in the quarter thats great
beetles&eggs
Aug-26-02, 9:40 PM
heaven or las vegas
phillip
orange rind
Aug-30-02, 7:58 PM
yeah, i completely agree with pink choirgirl, no one mentioned HOH, and all the other albums and even some ep's got mentioned. that's odd.
oh yes leesa, i feel completely the same way about milk and kisses as you. i like the last 2 tracks, but some of the rest was shamelessly bad imo. tishbite (except liz's improvisation towards the end), half-gifts, violaine are among my most detested ct songs. and the cover art was utter crap.
orange rind
Aug-30-02, 8:00 PM
did i mention that hoh is my all time favorite? ;)
cheers
Lucibelle
Aug-30-02, 9:21 PM
ALL OF THEM!!!!
I can't pick a favorite. That's like asking a mother to choose her favorite child!
I remember when I first heard them, though. It was in the early 80s and 'Love's easy tears' was playing on VH1 of all things. (never heard them on VH1 ever since) It enchanted me so much I went right out to find it. There were only the EPs in our store's 'Imports' section, and none of the sleeves listed the songs. In fact, I'm not even so sure that I remembered the name of the song, just the name 'Cocteau Twins'. But as fate would have it, I purchased 'Love's easy tears' out of sheer luck. It was a buying frenzy after that.
Now don't even get me started on the first time I heard 'Treasure'! :D
DEANCOCTEAU
Sep-4-02, 6:18 PM
I would have to choose TREASURE as it was the first album I heard and it just blew me away. I think I would say it is my all time favourite album by any artiste.
Having said that I totally agree with comments above that FCC is a fantastic album and is probably the best album the Cocteau Twins have made. The quality of the song writing is amazing. It is one of those very rare albums where every song just gets better and better as you hear it.
Dean.
CocteauBoy
Sep-5-02, 12:57 AM
I think I have different albums as favorites for different contexts:
Like for some reason, Heaven or Las Vegas is most excellent to just sing out loud to with some sense of owning each song with your own absurd lyrics, while feeling like you are making a breakthrough in what she is actually saying!
And Victorialand is perfect for helping shape your dreams into something more than they could have ever been during your own, normal sleep.
And Blue Bell Knoll somehow seems to be the quintessential Cocteau Twins, which I usually introduce everyone to them through.
Troy
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