POO: Cocteau Twins EP

"Those eyes, that mouth" was on Love's Easy Tears.

The thing I find that's so fascinating about this is that while there's a legitimate criticism of the band that all their stuff sounds kind of the same (something that became particularly clear by the 90s), when you put these up against each other, they all seem quite different.

Whoah.

I have to go with the Love's Easy Tears EP also, I mean, it has "Orange Appled"!
1986 is just my favorite year for the Cocteaus, with that EP, Victorialand, and "Crushed" from the Lonely Is An Eyesore compilation.

Should I get the singles box set?

Singles box is excellent — even for the mid-level fan. You could almost argue that it's all you need.

I listened to Treasure on cd for the first time recently and I thought it sounded ultra tinny as compared to my vinyl version. The "oomph" was lost somehow.

Actually, beyond the tinnyness (something I believe has to do w/ the reissues), I always thought it seemed much more aligned with the trad. 4AD/Goth stuff than their other work. That said, my copy was stolen years ago (presumably by a Dead Can Dance fan), so all I'm really remembering is "Ivo" and the one with the really clangy drum machine.

Not much goes on, just a performance video though it is well shot. It has that guazy pre-Twin Peaks feeling going for it.

S'there!

I went for a long time not liking "Treasure" all that much but thatd be the fact I was in a near-car accident the first day I heard it.

Here in Canada, they are added on the CD version of Garlands along with different versions of "Hazel" (which is better than the one on Peppermint Pig IMO), and "Blind dumb deaf" plus 2 bonus tracks "Speak No Evil" and "Perhaps Some Other Aeon".

Even though I love it, I agree with Treasure not being their best album as most people always seem to claim. For me, it's between Head Over Heels and Victorialand, even though I'd take the EPs over most albums, they're just that great.

Even though Iceblink luck was good even though the consensus at the time was that they had somehow sold out?

http://www.cocteautwins.com/html/media/video.html

gosh. all their videos online, streaming quicktime.

Sunburst And Snowblind probably had the most impact on me at the time, cos it was fairly concurrent with Head Over Heels which I was absolutely in love with. and there's the tie-in of "Sugar Hiccup", which makes it seem an extension of the album: "Sugar Hiccup, our cheery horse..."

"Peppermint Pig" is the best title track - the sound of that record and her vocal take me back like nothing else (I must have been in love at the time, or something)

I guess I should buy Heaven Or Las Vegas or Treasure or whatever, cos most of these frustrate me, to the tune of, "Hrm. This isn't it--this isn't "my" Cocteau album. Not yet... which one...".

Except for Twinlights--ahem--which is what I'd pick for best CT I own, and thus best EP.

And I just bought *Head over Heels* on cd and have failed to play it all the way through. It used to be ecstasy, every time. I guess I grew out of it without noticing.

I'm glad other people like *Peppermint Pig* because I always loved it, and the Cocteaux famously don't. The first and last time they worked with Alan Rankine (ex-Associates).

EPs? *Lullabies* for me too.

Now I have to choose between Lullabies and Aikea-Guinea. Lullabies it is.

anyway, love's easy tears.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn306/Floridian_20/CocteauTwins_AikeaGuinea_ep.jpg

One of the most horribly over-produced records ever. And somehow STILL in the upper 10% of Cocteau Twins recordings. Go figure. I can't believe I'm hearing this again after so many years. "Rococco" is especially flipping my lid right now. Unlike most of the rest of Cocteau Twins discography, I never got this one on CD in any form, so it's the old THICK 4AD VINYL IN MY EARS now. And why would I have it any other way, really, for such a horribly produced record?

bits of 'watchlar' are very reminiscent of 'big yellow taxi' to these ears

singles box set is up on emusic now too

Holy crap, you're right xpost

Now I can hear Liz warbling "paid paradise, to put up a paha ha ha ha haaarking loootttt"

She would of course retitle the song "Harkinglot".

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn306/Floridian_20/CocteauLullabies.jpg

Having listened to Lullabies to Violaine in its entirety last night, I can safely go with Sunburst & Snowblind, though, man, what a stellar career run of EPs. I'll also put in a good word for the undersung Twinlights.

ALL BUT AN ARK LARK

I still think that maroon EP box is the best way to listen to them.

It’s been Love’s Easy Tears for a while tho.

I spent, like, a week's rent on the box when it came out, never regretted for a second.

A roommate of mine used to tease me about how hard I rode all my nice boxed sets – but he was more of a collector and I was more of a listener. This one got a ton of listens – particularly that stretch of Sunburst and Snowblind, Spanglemaker, Aikea Guinea, Echoes in a Shallow Bay/Tiny Dynamine and Love’s Easy Tears.

There’s something about these EPs that just work for me in a way most of their long players do not. In part it’s maybe because the hit/miss ratio is higher – at least three of these have no songs that are even average much less Cocteaus by-the-numbers.

I also think their production style varies more from release to release than is apparent at first – for instance, the gated compressed sound of Love’s Easy Tears sounds almost nothing like the Echoes/Dynamine two-fer from a year earlier (and Aikea-Guinea from the same year sounds like none of them). So even if I jump around a little, there’s a freshness to listening to these three or four song blasts that their albums don’t really deliver.

There's something very enjoyable about listening to all the albums and EPs in chronological order from about Head Over Heels through to Victorialand (give or take a bit on either side) - that five year stretch where it felt like the band were progressing and refining their sound and incorporating new ideas and influences while managing to sound ever more like themselves, with a sense of a "leap" forward (even if only a small one at times) with each release.

It reminds me (not sonically) of Stereolab's development over a comparable (92 - 96) time period.

Karl Malone to thread!

One of my most enduring favourite record shopping surprises was walking into my local one day when I was a student and finding all the UK 12” EPs from “Sunburst and Snowblind” through to “Love’s Easy Tears” had just come in. Happily paid a couple of quid each. Considered moving them on when ‘Lullabies to Violaine’ came out but glad I didn’t, I quite like them as concise bursts of self-contained listening.

Xp Yes! Stereolab another great example of artists who can craft EPs that are their own little universes. Who else comes to mind and is that even a thing anymore?

If there was ever an "expanded" 4AD-era CD reissue project (the time for that has long passed, I imagine), and the LPs were padded out with chronologically-adjacent EPs/B-sides/compilation tracks, where would they be assigned?

Garlands + Lull + PP makes sense, I guess
HoH + S&S + Millim + Spangle?
Treasure + A-G + EiaSB + TD (nope, too long - 87min)
Victorialand + Love's ET (incl Orange Appled) + Crushed + maybe one of the 1985 EPs
BBK... gets nothing?
HoLV + Iceblink B-sides + High Monkey-Monk + Dials

Slowdive and MBV, certainly. xp

Love's Easy Tears + Crushed would feel really out of place with Victorialand. I would put the 4 vocal tracks from the Moon and the Melodies as bonus tracks instead.

Release Echos, Tiny Dynamine, Love's Easy Tears and Crushed as one LP.

4CC gets Snow

Milk and Kisses + Twinlights + Otherness

xp

Ah, nice idea with Vic + MatM vocal tracks.