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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nearly 4 hours of bliss!, December 6, 2005
This review is from: Lullabies to Violaine: Singles & Extended Plays (Audio CD)
Finally, a remastered collection of all Cocteau Twins' singles and EPs! Cocteau Twins put some of their most beautiful and mysterious work onto their 4-song EPs, and it's wonderful to have this material all collected together into a luxuriously-packaged, limited edition 4-CD set. The 4AD-era EPs, of course, have already been collected into an earlier box set (9 individual CDs + a disc of 4 rare tracks), but the later singles and EPs released on Fontana are, mostly, long out of print. So it's a major event to have this all in one set and, remastered by Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie, this music has never sounded better!
Some notes on the contents: this set contains all the regular-issue EPs/singles from their first release in 1982 to their last in 1996, including the "Twinlights" (acoustic versions) and "Otherness" (ambient remixes) EPs and the rare "Snow" single, with the Cocteau Twins' hilarious covers of "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman". (A shame that Cocteau Twins never did an album of cover versions.) 4AD songs on CDs 1-2, Fontana releases on CDs 3-4. A few songs from the 4AD era are given only in alternate and previously-unreleased versions. There are a few omissions: the 12" version of "Peppermint Pig" is mysteriously not included, nor is the rarities disc from the first singles' box. None of the few strays from compilations are included, which would have been nice for the completist. But this is a quibble: all the good stuff is here!
It's probably pointless to comment on the music itself--any mentions of swirling guitars, ethereal vocals, incomprehensible lyrics just send me to sleep and, although these are features of the music, are not really what it's all about. Listening to the set all the way through, it's interesting to hear at the beginning Cocteau Twins' roots in the dark, brooding Joy Division type music of the very early 80s, and to hear how it evolves into something rich and strange. The remastering of this new set does bring out to me just how processed and treated everything became, which gave the music something of its unique sound. This isn't wild, improvised music, but it is alternately dark and joyous, stately and urgent. I always found Cocteau Twins rather disappointing live, because it was in the studio that they really worked their magic. In a few cases they get dangerously close to the twee and the cloying (especially on some of the later albums), but this set is an overview of their strongest work, in some ways much more effective than the recent "best-of" CD "Stars and Topsoil".
One of the great pleasure of buying Cocteau Twins on vinyl back in the 1980s was the lavish, luxurious packaging, courtesy of 4AD records and the designer Vaughn Oliver of 23 Envelope, later v23. This tradition is revived with a vengeance in this new release: a deceptively slender and small package that folds out into a long sleeve for the 4 CDs plus a small bound-in booklet, all stuffed into a translucent slipcase. (Not the sturdiest thing, alas, as mine arrived with the outer slipcase somewhat "Crushed".) The graphics are the usual beautiful abstract images of color and decay, with minimal but lovely typography--all that we could hope for from Vaughn Oliver/v23. But even more: the outer part of the fold-out sleeve is covered in some odd, rubber-like material that is wonderful to feel (you'll be stroking the cover as you listen to the music). This deluxe version is limited to 10,000 copies, after which apparently the set will be released as 2 separate 2-CD sets (without the tactile sleeve?). But why wait? Buy the limited edition now--you'll regret it forever on eBay if you don't!
One (irrelevant) question: does Fontana's licensing of these singles mean that it is loosening up on its back catalogue? Can we see a reissue of those Fontana albums by Pere Ubu on CD...?
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful capsule of an amazing band - but why not comprehensive and complete?, December 7, 2005
This review is from: Lullabies to Violaine: Singles & Extended Plays (Audio CD)
This CD package is perfect - beyond wonderful. Except...
This boxed set rights so many wrongs, putting so many wonderful tracks back in print, but completists will (and should) argue over the final product. Where is the early track "Millimenary"? Or the excellent B-sides "Need Fire" (from the "Judge Dredd" soundtrack to a wretched movie...) Or "See No Evil". Or "Perhaps Another Aion". Or the wonderful by-all-means-essential "Touch Upon Touch" from the Volume 17 compilation. (The final track Cocteau Twins would ever release.) This sounds like the Simpsons' Comic Book Store Guy for sure, but this compilation really was the chance to release everything and anything wonderful about a truly great band. The forgotten tracks were wonderful, and I'm sorry to say that although the CD lengths would have allowed it, they don't appear here. Oh well. We should never expect musicians to be librarians and discographers as well. Close, not perfect - recommended.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In a word, it's... cool., April 12, 2006
This review is from: Lullabies to Violaine: Singles & Extended Plays (Audio CD)
The Cocteau Twins were one of those mysterious bands that the really cool kids in High School were into. You know, the ones with lots of black clothing, complicated footwear, hip hairdos, and surprisingly easy access to mind-altering substances. In other words, not me.
In spite of this, I once unwittingly ended up with a Cocteau Twins album of sorts called The Moon and the Melodies via my obsession with the rather uncool music of Harold Budd. I didn't realize it at the time, though, since that record was credited to Mr. Budd with "Simon Raymonde / Robin Guthrie / Elizabeth Fraser" and I was way too uncool to realize that those three people were actually the Cocteau Twins.
I continue to grow older and more uncool each day, but I nevertheless decided to pick up Lullabies to Violaine -- a four CD retrospective of singles and other "non-album" tracks by this band from 1982's Lullabies to, well, Violaine in 1996. (It's available as either two double-CD sets or as a "limited edition" four-CD set with the same track listing and strange shiny rubbery packaging they call "Curious Soft Touch Milk" for some reason...)
Knowing that the Cocteau twins are considered one of the original and definitive "dream / ambient pop" bands, I was more than a little surprised (and somewhat annoyed) by the first six tracks on disc one -- "Lullabies" is not a title I would have chosen for these dissonant, distorted, agitated electro-punk tunes.
When "Sugar Hiccup" (there's a great title!) arrives, however, the clouds part and the Cocteau Twins hit on what would be their signature sound going forward. You soon find out why the adjectives "ethereal," "blissful," "dreamy," and "atmospheric" are always used to describe their music: massively echoed, reverbed, and chorused layers of pulsing guitars and synthesizers... unintelligible sweeping soprano vocals... piles of major 7th chords... and, so the kids can dance to it all, a steady drum machine beat.
Over time, the Cocteau Twins tinker with this appealing formula without straying too far from it. But sometimes this stuff is too saccharine and radiant for its own good, sounding a little too much like the ideal soundtrack to a Volkswagen commercial or something. Also, while it's nice to understand the words Elizabeth Fraser is singing for a change, these versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman" just sound really silly.
Otherwise, there is plenty of genuinely sublime music to be heard throughout this collection, including several great tracks from the band's often dismissed and maligned later years. I especially enjoy it when they turn the drum machine down (or off) and let the music and vocals expand and breathe a little more. The alternate "acoustic versions" of some songs are also a welcome inclusion, allowing you to better appreciate the unique sound of this band without all the layers of production and processing.
So whether you're a die-hard fan needing to round out your collection or a newcomer looking to take the plunge into the Cocteau Twins ocean, Lullabies to Violaine is an ideal (and affordable) way to do it.
In a word, it's... cool.
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