Customer Reviews

Moon & Melodies

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

this is my first review for Amazon. I bought this album when neither Amazon nor the Internet eexisted, I have been a fan of the Cocteaus for 14 years, and I just loved the idea of not using the name Cocteau Twins. Some tracks like "Memory Gongs" sound as if they had been played under the water. A perfect soundtrack for being lost in a pinus forest amidst a dense fog, barely being able to see the blurry shape of the trees. The last track has the most inventive and senseless name ever, and it grows and grows until it explodes. One can barely hear Harold Budd in the Cocteau Tracks, but can surely here Robin Guthrie's guitar sliding through Harold Budd's tracks. One of my best cds. I would like to take it to my grave.

...and the results are a spellbinding, lovely collection of songs which are alternately haunting and powerful. The combination of Liz Fraser's gorgeous vocals, the unmistakeable Twins melodies of Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie, and Harold Budd's swirling, otherworldly piano, is flawless.

Some have thought that this album is divided into 4 Cocteau Twins songs and 4 Harold Budd songs, but they have not listened closely enough. The songs to which Liz lends her irreproachable voice have a different feel because of it, but the songs are all collaborative, each an exceptional mixture of the talents of these four musicians.

"She Will Destroy You" is a flawless song. The vocals and instrumentation are perfectly performed, producing a dark and brooding mood. "Sea, Swallow Me" is lighter in tone but just as impressively rendered.

This is one of the few CD's I would recommend to just about anyone; regardless of their musical tastes, they will love the Moon & the Melodies.

In a music collection that spans over many genres and over serveral thousand. It would be hard to imagine not having this album in my collection. In the fifteen years since its release it has been one of the most played albums in my collection. This perenial favorite brings a calm to those living in the temporal world. Time,place, and space have no meaning when listening to this album. I take this album on long trips, flights to releave tension and camping for looking at the stars as an enhancement to the isolation of the wilderness. This album will musical and spritually take you to place you have never been before or dream about for that matter. I have been a Cocteau Twins fan as well as a Harold Budd Fan even before the collaboration. Though there are two distinct styles here there is continuity and harmony overall. Words really can't do justice here. This is one of a few albums you can buy and not feel cheated or your time/money was wasted. Like Neo seeing the Oracle in the Matrix. This album is for you and you ALONE. By that, I mean what you get from listening to it will be you own experience. You should though, share this with as many as possible but; listening to this album is best as private/intimate experience.

Although this is not really a successful collaboration - there are five pop-oriented tracks which are in the Cocteaus' vein and three which resemble Budd's mid-'80s work - the pure beauty and atmosphere of the music is impressive. Generally taking a subdued path, this album contains a few songs which are among the best either artist has done. The first twenty seconds of "Sea, swallow me" are awesome: Budd's wonderful piano theme suddenly flows into a mighty wall of sound, made of ringing guitar chords, nautical bass lines, and slow-motion drums. The spacey, peacefully drifting "She will destroy you" is another excellent song, it features a saxophone outro by Dif Juz's Richard Thomas. "Ooze out.." slowly builds intensity before a furious finale, it closes this all-too-short album on a very positive, uplifting note. Some people will probably balk at the slightly dissonant "Memory gongs" (this track can also be found on Budd's album "Lovely thunder", it's called "Flowered knife shadows" there) and the meandering, improvised "The ghost.." (again, with saxophone by Richard), and I agree that these pieces carry a bit too long. Still, the arrangements are interesting enough to keep things entertaining. "Why do..?" with its pearling piano runs, lurking guitar feedback, and twangy bass is another stand-out track. "The moon.." indeed was my favorite album for a couple of years, and it still sounds timeless. I just thought I should tell you that you can also get a much cheaper edition of this disc at amazon.com, so you don't have to buy the import version which doesn't even offer bonus tracks or different art-work. The US edition is still in print and costs less than $12.

To those already Cocteau Twins fans, this is pure delight. Harold Budd's collaboration with Cocteau Twins remains to this day one of my favorite pieces of music. The lush soundscapes of Guthrie, Raymonde & Fraser blend perfectly with Budd's light touches of atmosphere, delivering a music unlike anything I have ever heard. It's as if someone bottled sunlight and moonbeams. I'm usually a skeptic but albums like these make me believe in magic. "Memory Gongs" might just be what I'd like to hear on my deathbed. This is one of music's best kept secrets.

I have been a fan of The Cocteau Twins for 15 years. Timeless music such as this should find it's way into every true music lovers collection. This particular album establishes the line between a true art form of music and what people call music today. Moon & The Melodies is more of a instrumental album. Still the vocals of Elizabeth Fraser's will make a persons heart melt...or bleed. ENJOY!

Yes! In portuguese, my friends... The Moon and The Melodies é daquelas produções que tocam como um raro e exótico perfume nossos sentidos. Sim, passam-se anos, décadas e, quando tomamos contato novamente com um pequeno rastro seu, imediatamente viajamos para onde e quando o sentimos pela primeira vez. Assim, cada uma de suas melodias será capaz de nos marcar indelevelmente os sentidos, aprisionando-os onde quer que estejam e como for estejam. Assim na Terra como na Lua.

this is another simply beautiful effort by the cocteau twins. budd's piano and guthrie's guitars trickle and hover, like a fall shower followed by a cool breeze. fraser's voice complements the whole thing, though many of these tracks are instrumentals. however when fraser does enter the picture the results are spine tingling, as in the majestic "sea, swallow me". stand out tracks are the tear inducing "why do you love me?" as well as "memory gongs" and "eyes are mosaics".. simply magnificent.

The Moon and the Melodies has long since been one of my favorite Twins albums. It is actually called Raymonde, Guthrie, Budd, Fraser: The Moon and the Melodies after The Cocteau Twins (actually three): Elizabeth Fraser, Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie joined by Harold Budd (I think I have the names in the correct order). This CD is difficult to obtain and might be termed the equivalent of a Windham Hill Cocteau Twins, with no vocals and beautiful, slow, definitive, keyboard arrangements that cascade forward, with open spaces and unerring continuity. For those of you that are fans, this is the opposite of "Garlands". It is the most accessible Twins for your parents and your patient, intense moments, and not the first CD you would play to make someone a quick first time fan, like "Heaven or Las Vegas". The closest musical comparisons I come up with is Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" on a condensed version or some of David Sylvian / Japan / Rain Tree Crow instrumentals.

Years ago when I first heard of this release I thought that
a collaboration between Budd and the Cocteaus had lots of
potential, but upon actually hearing it I was a bit disappointed
to find that nothing here really sounds like a meeting of the
minds. Some tracks sound like Harold Budd, some sound like
the Cocteau Twins, end of story. That's not to say it's not
beautiful music with Robin Guthrie's always pristine production
work, but it doesn't feel like a project that was given the

proper attention.