release date: Nov. 1, 1984
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Cocteau Twins / Robin Guthrie (2003 reissue)
label: 4AD Records - nationality: Scotland, UK
Track highlights: 1"Ivo" - 2. "Lorelei" (4 / 5) (live) - 4. "Persephone" - 5. "Pandora (For Cindy)" - 7. "Aloysius" - 10. "Donimo"
3rd studio album by Cocteau Twins is the first really fine album by the band who still do not operate with a drummer, only using drum machines, but Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie has now found the replacement for former bassist Will Heggie by expanding the project with Simon Raymonde. The album is the first to be exclusively produced by the band, and the sound is at this point a trademark hailed as a brilliant display of workmanship, and a sound that focuses on Guthrie's guitar sound and Fraser's characteristic undecipherable vocal harmonies using her voice as an instrument of sound.
It's still not entirely harmonic dream pop - a few tracks like "Persephone" and "Cicely" still sounds like heavily inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees without being poor or lesser compositions but they do point in other directions and have a distinct post-punk feel.
The album was reissued and remastered by Robin Guthrie in 2003. It's an acclaimed album by the band, and many critics (and fans) consider this to be their finest, which is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
I don't really consider the album one of the band's absolute best as I find it too incoherent pointing to much more consistent releases but it's undoubtedly important in the way it helps defining their later sound.
Recommended.
[ 👎allmusic.com, Spin 4,5 / 5, 👉Rolling Stone Music Guide 3,5 / 5 stars ]
