Song that can most represent the identity of CT?

[icesore]

I always have this problem when people ask me about CT's music...They couldnt get me when i use the terms like...ethereal, dreamy, floating..blablabla...to describe CT's music and Ms Lizzie vocals...

then i decided to show them a track...now i have another problem again... i dunno which track to choose....coz i can only use one song to describe CT... seems like i gotto crack my head again...:explode:

All albums, including B sides and the rare tracks, what would you choose to represent CT's work?:help:

[Phil Lawton]

"Pink Orange Red"

[DREXER]

I always have this problem when people ask me about CT's music...They couldnt get me when i use the terms like...ethereal, dreamy, floating..blablabla...to describe CT's music and Ms Lizzie vocals...

then i decided to show them a track...now i have another problem again... i dunno which track to choose....coz i can only use one song to describe CT... seems like i gotto crack my head again...:explode:

All albums, including B sides and the rare tracks, what would you choose to represent CT's work?:help:
It's "Ambient Dream Wave." Or, "An upward spiral to heaven."

Play them "Iceblink Luck" or "Heaven Or Las Vegas" from the album Heaven Or Las Vegas.

[DREXER]

"Pink Orange Red"
"Pink Orange Red" is a good one too.

It's all good. There isn't one song by CT that I don't like.

[Brett]

Lorelei was first to win my heart, so Lorelei. Pink Orange Red is a fave too, if you fear that 80's crashing drum machine on Treasure.

Or from the later period my favourite songwriting would be Road River and Rail.

[mike_mhg]

This is an impossible task.
Having said that the track that encapsulates CT music FOR ME is The Itchy Glowbo Blow.
A backgroud of those dreamy guitar sweeps, Liz's soaring voice and the foreground of Robin's thumping repetative chords, monotonous almost, so that a new listener would think "this guy can only play a few chords" and then - just after Liz has stopped singing - he lays down that wonderful melody.

Well, that's what I think anyway.

[Baddy2shoos]

I cannot recommend an single song, but I would choose Blue Bell Knoll.

[paulr]

Something about 'Crushed' that embodies all I love about CT.....I just wished the outro would last forever......................

[Phil Lawton]

It's "Ambient Dream Wave." Or, "An upward spiral to heaven."[/U]

Are these bootlegs or two tracks I've somehow missed?

[gladwin]

Are these bootlegs or two tracks I've somehow missed?

No. They're extracts from Steve Sutherland's Melody Maker reviews.

[icesore]

This is an impossible task.
Having said that the track that encapsulates CT music FOR ME is The Itchy Glowbo Blow.
A backgroud of those dreamy guitar sweeps, Liz's soaring voice and the foreground of Robin's thumping repetative chords, monotonous almost, so that a new listener would think "this guy can only play a few chords" and then - just after Liz has stopped singing - he lays down that wonderful melody.

Well, that's what I think anyway.


exactly what my fren said...this guy used to play classical guitar and jazz guitar...after i show him some CT tracks, his respond is like "What so special? THIS GUY CAN ONLY PLAY A FEW CHORDS" gosh....but i think Robin's guitar is really fascinating...the combination of lizzie vocal n his guitar is the best HEAVENLY COMBO SET

[icesore]

what about Mud and Dark? i used to think this track comprises the signature tunes of CT and Lizzie vocals...

though i guess i would recommend 'Calfskin Smask' to my fren... Love the different vocals of lizz in this track

[DREXER]

Are these bootlegs or two tracks I've somehow missed?
They aren't songs. If you look up the genera of music that's categorized by the music industry has put CT in the "Ambient Dream Wave." category.

Like when you're on line and inter an audio disk, there is a data bank that has all of the information on bands to add to a play list for whatever you use as media player. There is a genera category included in the bands information.

[spiderlocks]

I was gonna say Ice-blink Luck......but now I think BBK

[louis1st]

I think Carolyn's Fingers is a good introduction, Robin & Simon's guitar work are sublime & it shows off Liz's operatic vocal capabilities.

[Phil Lawton]

They aren't songs. If you look up the genera of music that's categorized by the music industry has put CT in the "Ambient Dream Wave." category.

Like when you're on line and inter an audio disk, there is a data bank that has all of the information on bands to add to a play list for whatever you use as media player. There is a genera category included in the bands information.

Right...it was just that the thread header was asking "Which song sums up CT?", not "How would you descibe their music?".

[Simonp]

Carolyn's Fingers is the song for me! Always - it just epitomises everything I love about the band, great guitar sound, thundering bass and that fucking amazing voice. Sublime.

[gladwin]

exactly what my fren said...this guy used to play classical guitar and jazz guitar...after i show him some CT tracks, his respond is like "What so special? THIS GUY CAN ONLY PLAY A FEW CHORDS" gosh....but i think Robin's guitar is really fascinating...the combination of lizzie vocal n his guitar is the best HEAVENLY COMBO SET

I was once presented with a version of this argument by a mouth-breathing dirty-denimed heavy metal fan. He asserted that metal was the best music because "it's the most difficult to play."

Hiding my Samuel Johnson volume in a handy pocket, I retorted:

"Difficult, you say? I wish it was impossible!"

[chased]

i remember what robin said once, he decribed alot of music as having "too much virtuoso technique and not enough feeling." cocteau twins songs may be easy to play, but it takes the eye of a tiger to come up with chord progressions like that.

i guess i'll have to go with 'plain tiger' for the song

[K-ne]

For a document design project in grad school last year, I did a mock magazine article layout for a sort of "music spotlight" feature, using CT as the featured artist. The project let me try out a bunch of different ways to attempt to verbally (and visually) describe their music. I wasn't sure, from the user testing I did, if any of them really succeeded - but one woman I tested asked if I had any CT tracks on hand.

I looked through iTunes and played the first minute or so of "Carolyn's Fingers." (I think I only had BBK and maybe Victorialand on the hard drive.) Her face lit up as soon as the music started, and she started nodding, going "Ohhh. Now I see what you're saying."

So I think it worked for her, at any rate! And thinking back I'm not sure what else I would have picked even if I'd had the whole discography available to me, so... yeah. *Maybe* something from HoLV.

[fornasetti]

Great Spangled Fritillary

[Musette]

I like this song best of all of their songs. If I had to pick the most representative one, though, I'd go with "Blue Bell Knoll".

[Ghosty]

I'd go with Ivo. It's the song that got me hooked. I can still remember being totally blown away when I first heard it. Pearly Dewdrops got me interested so I went to check out some more CT and Treasure was the only album they had in my music store. They put it on and Bam! total euphoria. So maybe it will work like that for others aswell.

[Sean_Montgomery]

Aikea-Guinea

[riah]

bbk~~~

[DREXER]

I like this song best of all of their songs. If I had to pick the most representative one, though, I'd go with "Blue Bell Knoll".
I totally agree with Blue Bell Knoll. It was my first album by Cocteau Twins that I bought at ZIA Records music by selling and trade music. I had never heard Cocteau Twins ever and deciding to by Blue Bell Knoll without knowing the band. It was strait luck at testing bands. I was astonished by them and I became captivated by it for the rest of my life.

In Blue Bell Knoll, for one song to influence the curiosity of a person like it did me, I would play the song from BBL ~A Kissed Out Red Floatboat~ I love that song.

[DREXER]

i remember what robin said once, he decribed alot of music as having "too much virtuoso technique and not enough feeling." cocteau twins songs may be easy to play, but it takes the eye of a tiger to come up with chord progressions like that.

i guess i'll have to go with 'plain tiger' for the song
Robin is amazing!!! On Garlands, I love the way the song, "The Hollow Men" ends by fade out. Then from the silence, a fade in of psycodelic screeching guitar at in the next song, "Garlands." Robin has always been amazing and totally originally creative. Like nothing anyone has ever heard. Then the end of Garlands, how it bleeds into the next song, "Grail Overfloweth." And I think Robin is fantastic for access to the most high tech affect rendering gear in his productions. I thing Robin is a fantastic Producer, Audio Engineering, what I'm studying at school and home with having to pick out 18 songs out of 32 songs that I've written for my web-site.

Fade out then fade in. What a song merge for the album's song lineup, or music set.

And it was just the beginning...

[4CC]

I think Pink Orange Red, Carolyn's Fingers and The Itchy Glowbo Blow are all great choices for this. May i add From The Flagstones and Suckling The Mender.

[mike_mhg]

May i add .... and Suckling The Mender.
spookily, that's currently shaking my windows

[4CC]

They must be shaking just beautifully, Mike.

[mike_mhg]

Yes they are. Now rattling to spooning good...

[4CC]

RIGHT! ...Where's my copy of BBK? I can restrain myself no longer...

:)

[DREXER]

RIGHT! ...Where's my copy of BBK? I can restrain myself no longer...

:)

Oh shit! I wrote the abbreviation of Blue Bell Knoll, (BBL) I don't know why I did that?

BBK:baby:

[Domestique]

If you held a gun to my head I'd have to plump for Ivo. With hindsight isn't it the moment everything gelled?

[xixax777]

Seven or so songs strike me as "classic" Cocteau Twins, but I keep coming back to Beatrix...

[leamanc]

I always use The Spangle Maker as an introduction to CT. That always makes people want to hear more!

[ScottL]

I think Pink Orange Red, Carolyn's Fingers and The Itchy Glowbo Blow are all great choices for this. May i add From The Flagstones and Suckling The Mender.

Yeah, I don't have much idea which I'd pick for whatever reasons..but, on a whim, I'd go with Suckling the Mender. I definitely wouldn't go with Flagstones though, as I don't really like it as much.

[Phil Lawton]

I always use The Spangle Maker as an introduction to CT. That always makes people want to hear more!

Fabulous, stirring denouement to that song, L.

[mborum]

Gosh, good question... I guess for me the "quintessential" CT songs have always been "Sugar Hiccup" (esp. the 12" version), "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops," "Ivo," "Lorelei," "Aikea-Guinea," "Pink Orange Red," "Crushed," "Carolyn's Fingers," and "Heaven or Las Vegas." So it seems there's quite a bit of consensus among many of us. Neat.

Although I love "Four-Calendar Café," I can't identify one song on there that I would say sounds like a "typical" Cocteau Twins song except maybe "Pur" because of the song structure and "Bluebeard" because the timing and rhythm are so similar to "Iceblink Luck" or "Carolyn's Fingers."

I feel the same way about "Milk & Kisses," with the possible exception of "Tishbite" and "Treasure Hiding" because their structures or feel were familiar.

BUT... if I had to pick just one song, I'd pick "Carolyn's Fingers." Dunno why, it just seems like the "one."

Michael

[Jeek]

Orange Appled, Those Eyes That Mouth, or Crushed...

[Mackey]

I agree with some others who wrote "Carolyn's Fingers," cos that song really does comprise the best of each member's particular talent (not that many other songs don't).

But maybe to represent CT music as a whole, in one CT song, i'd select Lazy Calm (no offense meant, Simon).

Good question, though. And I was tempted to use the "too many to decide" response, but you didn't really ask for a favorite, per se.
:digi:

[by the sea]

Love's Easy Tears

[david porte]

Once heard Liz's voice described as being like " an angel gargling on honey", which I thought summed it up quite well. Love's Easy Tears would sum up their sound for me too.

[Phil Lawton]

Once heard Liz's voice described as being like " an angel gargling on honey", which I thought summed it up quite well. Love's Easy Tears would sum up their sound for me too.

Long time no see, Dave.

[david porte]

Not had much to say! It's hard to jump back in when you've been out for a while. It's good to be back!