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111 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
dense, light and airy (all at once), August 5, 2003
In the early 1300's, Dante Alighieri became increasingly underwhelmed with language. He felt Latin (the written language) was artificial and furthermore, all the "natural languages" (languages used for speaking, opposed to Latin) were vulgar. He believed that this all had stemmed from the blasphemy of Babel, where God's (and Adam's) perfect, true language had splintered and fragmented and probably died. After years of research Dante decided it was impossible to find the first and perfect language so he vowed to make one himself. He felt he'd write poetry so lulling and beautiful that the rest of the world would adopt his new-language. As far as I know, he never succeeded. The Cocteau Twins, however, (and you thought I'd never get around to them) may have found what Dante had craved. Elizabeth Fraiser's "vocals" are stunningly beautiful, and one can always hear pieces of words or sentences from as many languages as are out there, I swear I have heard Dutch, French and of course English in her "lyrics" and I presume there may be a healthy dose of Gaelic, or Celtic, in some of her yodels (but I wouldn't know for sure). Most describe her form of singing as gibberish (in a good way) but I think it may be more calculated than that. I suppose it can be said she is singing in both Babylonian and Dante's imaginary language, embracing each. I dunno. I first heard of the Cocteau Twins in 1985 when I was a rather rabid Cure fan, I had read somewhere that the Cocteau Twins were Robert Smith's favorite band. That was enough for me to search them out, but it simply wasn't that easy. Anyone who is my age with my musical tastes will recall the days when record stores just didn't have everything. They will remember how hard it was to find things like this. I had searched seemingly everywhere, but couldn't find the Cocteaux, until, by chance, visiting a friend who had a neighbor, who somehow had several dusty and thick LP's. That was my introduction. Like many Cocteau Twins fans, I have nearly every release, stopping after they left 4AD. I have always considered Treasure their opus, with it's lilting melodies and richly embroidered tapestry of sound, sexy breathy voices and desperate wailing screams, unlike anything at the time, or since. It is every Cocteau Twins fan's hobby to try and sing along and the lyrics one comes up with are as amazing as they are varied. For instance, from Persephone "....leads a paperchase, for a timepiece never changes this..." (one of my own, now it's your turn). There really needs no convincing, buy this album, it is simply one of the best ever made, and timeless too. I have given this album as gifts in the past to a wide range of people who have all enjoyed it. In fact, I only know one person who knows of the Cocteau Twins who does not like them, but she's really weird and dislikes most things. This is a great album for the CD format because you can put it on repeat, but I must admit, I do miss the style and slickness of 4AD albums, the vinyl was definitely thicker and heavy, they were a good label. Another way to review this album would be swifter with only these two words: "BUY IT". Worth the remaster.
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is Cocteau Twins' 
