Not a fan of the Cockteau Twins. More importantly, I think their influence, in league with others in that ethereal/shoegaze kind of vein, helped to remove diversity within artists' repretoires. They produced albums that were consistent and "rubber stamped" the same sound across every track.

A lot of my friends love this ethereal, shoe-gaze kind of stuff. People who are into shoe-gazer music tell me that the band members stare at their shoes because they think they're better than the audience, and don't want to look at "the peasants". I always thought those guys stepped in lots of poop and were staring at their shoes, wondering how all that poop got on there...

Nonetheless, I have seen this sort of superiority and arrogance in people I know that make shoe-gazer music. One of my good friends recorded an album on his DAW using v-drums and a POD. He spent money to have his OK recording glossed up with fancy mastering by Capitol. I went to his site, and listened to his music, and every song sounds the same. Then I read this sentence about how he "reinvented the way music is recorded, altogether" and he "...experiments with music above and beyond what is done today..." By using a POD? Come on! He's a great guy, I've known him since high school, but he's the sort of guy that thinks he's a super computer scientist because he got a website working on Windows NT Server.

I guess my point is, not only is the music simplistic, uniform, and covered up by effects, but the artists and fans like the arrogance of it all.

I read a review of his album. It was favorable, but made the claim that it sounded like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and Cockteau Twins. It also said that's great, more of it... Yes. Please sir, can I have some more gruel.

Yes, and a band I recorded for a while (and bailed because they really were impossible to deal with) ended up getting some MTV airplay. Anyway, they spent much more time on their hair and clothes, than on the music. Again, every song sounded the same. In fact, their frontman had me put a 120bpm click track on every song. He used the same quadraverb setting on every song.

Shit, shit, crap, poop, fuck, cock, ass, shit, amoeba.

Then again, I think "alternative" music should strive to be better than "popular" music. But "alternative" music did have a fair amount of being about looks and whatnot. I hear many people say things like "Oh, that alternative looking chick that works in accounts payable." So now, dying your hair jet black and wearing pancake makeup is "alternative". Got it.

I think most country albums are more diverse than your average shoegazer album.

But at least they were inventive with singing in their own language. Really, very clever. I don't think anyone has done that before.

Boy, I never had any idea in which direction the Cocteau Twins looked while they play/sing. I also had no idea that they forced your friend to make a shitty album and feel really arrogant about it. I was foolishly judging the band based on how I feel when I hear them, never stopping to consider that you recorded a band - that got some MTV airplay - that was more concerned with their appearance than their music. I was just thinking about how much I enjoy Fraser's incredible voice, and failing to think about the fact that dyed black hair and pancake make-up is now considered "alternative". I was thinking about irrelevant things like "do I like the lyrics, melody, and so on?", and completely ignoring the important factors, like "are their albums more diverse than most country albums?"

Wernehm_Zackariaah improbably wrote:Talk about the music or get the fuck out of here.

And hey, what do the Cocteau Twins have in common with AC/DC, The Beatles, and the Goo Goo Dolls? They all sing in "their own language", i.e. English.

I've only heard the album, "Heaven Or Las Vegas" and I love it. The first three tracks are especially luverly jubberly. "Iceblink Luck" is just super.

i voted crap even though i think if i heard the right stuff i would really like this band. you see, i really like their album "garlands". but i heard "four calendar cafe" and it was crappy. i heard bit of other stuff of theirs and it seemed crappy, which makes me think that maybe i've heard more crap from them than good stuff, and thus i vote crap. though if i gave this band another chance i bet i'd really like them, particularly since i've recently been a lot more comfortable with reverby 80s stuff than i used to be... i'd just have to find the right material.

So NOT CRAP.

The early 80's are the Golden Age, and yes, the last 2 albums got close to Enya country, but that early stuff is so dynamic and dramatic.

The Pink Opaque is inscrutable.

Liz Fraser has a great voice, although for the most part she's singing in English, just with really weird inflection and delivery.

*BUMP*

not crap

Treasure, Blue Bell Knoll, The Pink Opaque. Wonderful. Great music to fuck to as well.

If I'm drinking at the Hungry Brain, there is a 99.9% chance that I will play "Pitch The Baby" on the jukebox no more than two times.

I haven't thought about the Cocteau Twins in a long time. I would've liked to have kept it that way.

I can't fill up my iPod with them like I can with other bands - say, Bongwater, or Neil Young - and not get annoyed after the 20th or so song. But I really really like them. I love their 12"s - 4 songs, that's the perfect amount of Cocteau Twins for me at any one time. I think my favourite track by them is "Spanglemaker". They're definitely one of a kind, and they do have their 'formula' but when it's awesome, it's really awesome.

tipcat wrote:Cocteau Twins will never be crap...Unforgettable melodies meshed with Liz's voice make for an utterly unique sound. Without Cocteau Twins, there would be no My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Low, M83, and Sigur Ros, to name a few. One of the most influential bands of the last 20 years.

Well said, sir! I think you made a very lucid point.
Salut!