First four albums re-issued
12 February 03
4AD are re-issuing the first four Cocteau Twins albums in their original tracklisting - Garland, Head Over Heels, Treasure, Victorialand. They've been remastered by Robin Guthrie, come with repackaged artwork, priced at mid price and are released on 10th February 2003...
20 years on it’s hard to conceive the impact the Cocteau Twins made with their debut Garlands only nine months after Elizabeth Fraser (vocals extraordinaire), Robin Guthrie (guitar) and Will Heggie (bass) first formed the band. With no press exposure and only a handful of live shows (but thanks to an oft repeated John Peel session) the album reached the top 10 in the independent chart where it stayed for the following year. At the end of 1982 NME readers voted it among the best albums of the year.
By the time Head over Heels was released in November 1983, Cocteau Twins had lost Will Heggie but enjoyed two (independently) successful singles. However few were prepared for the musical quantum leap that put the album at No.1 in the indie chart and had journalists searching for a new lexicon to describe their sound.
Treasure was the album that consolidated the band’s reputation and defined their sound with the unique layered vovals of Liz Fraser. Kept off the top spot by The Smiths’ Hatful Of Hollow, the album remained in the indie charts for an incredible 81 weeks. There were also 7 Cocteau Twins songs in John Peel’s 1985 festive 50.
With a further change in musical direction the fourth Twins’ album feature instrumental tracks and, had the term not fallen into such disrepute, Victorialand could be one of the first ‘chill-out’ albums. The original is still the greatest.