Cocteau Twins - first album "Garlands" C/D

Liz sings the shit out of the Milk and Kisses songs. You really must own it. Hell, sign up for an eMusic trial subscription and download the it for free!

Sounds even more unique now than it did back then, and reminds me of a time when "indie" had an entirely different meaning.

Classic, classic, classic!

god, what a misunderstood and under appreciated album.

Yes

Kinda like "Please Please Me" I can't help but adore the first efforts of breakthrough artists, when their influences and admirations were much more obvious.

In some ways this is probably my favourite Cocteaus album. Especially "Blind Dumb Deaf". This album transported me completely elsewhere when I first heard it at 16 and it still evokes moods of deep dark forests and gloom and fog and chilly still landscapes. Love it, adore it.

I heard this album for the first time 8 months ago.

It's fucking incredible.

I would expect a Cure fan to totally love this album yes!

Also recommend the band Lowlife to anyone who likes Garlands: it is the band the bassist Will Heggie went on to be a part of after leaving the Cocteaus.

For the longest time all the Cocteau Twins I needed was _Garlands_ and the singles box.

Trayce OTM re: Lowlife. Very much a male-fronted _Garlands_, which is a very good thing.

"clumsy" is a good way to put it, and not in an endearing way

yeah, "blind dumb deaf" is great. also, "hazel" performed at some bbc session featuring the cindytalk guy, really early on in the cocteau's career, is great garlands-like stuff too.

i've never quite gotten around to checking out lowlife, but i always planned to though. i wouldn't have known what to expect, but now, i gotta get on that really soon.

this is the only cocteaus album i can listen to these days, love that pimply drum machine & will basslines. lowlife were great, you check out the "diminuendo" album.

this album has something about it that the others don't have. i have to listen more carefully to say what.

It's definitely my favorite CT album.

this album has something about it that the others don't have.

Yeah, a different bass player! I know you meant more than that, though. It is darker and chillier.

Oh hell yeah. Gonna put it on right now. Remember this is a seriously goth record, here. I mean, indisputably 100% grade A goth.

Sometimes...just sometimes at midnight...I turn into a Goth. But don't tell anyone.

― Funky New Order Jazz Farts (Bimble...), Sunday, December 11, 2005 2:58 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Hahah what in the living fuck???

yes it is the bass player, i guess. this record has weight, it pulls down, it connects to the earth, it has depth, it is dark. whereas the others pull towards the sky and the light, make me float in the air. this is closer to hell whereas the others are closer to heaven. and liz fraser sings pretty well distinguishable words here. another point in favour of the down to earth theory. other records in a similar vein around the same time: new order's debut "movement", matt johnson's 1st "burning blue soul", the cure's "pornography". there is something very black and white about all those. it must have been the times.

another specialty of garlands. the cocteau twins rock out. for example on the derwish dance "wax and wane". i am not sure anymore if "heaven or las vegas" or "garlands" is my fave by them. the amg rating with two stars are a joke. the review is by ned. he goes on about repetition which supposedly devalues the record. some songs, e.g. "blind dumb deaf" are indeed quite annyoing. but not just because of repetition itself but because of repetition of an uninteresting theme.

This album has aged very well.

Still prob my fave one. 96tears that JF said he hated it way upthread ;_;

my friend Rozz, may he rest in piece, was fond of this one - played it for me when I asserted that the problem with the Cocteau Twins was that their music had no balls, and a week later I was buying their 12"s & spreading the gospel

Now thats what I'm talkin about! <3

get so sad when I remember Rozz evangelizing for the Cocteau Twins

RIP dudes who loved the Cocteau Twins & burned too brightly

:(

fwiw this thread resulted in me getting Garlands out for a spin again this evening, which is energisingly awesome. Such memories, setting off explosions in my mind.

Did I ever tell this story? When I was about 16, a tv show here played 2 CT live tracks from "the tube" - one of which was "Musette and Drums". I was at my granma's house, and I taped it and sat in front of the tv in awe knowing I was seeing something INCREDIBLE that I'd NEVER SEEN BEFORE.

My nan, bless her, diplomatically got up and said "I'll make us a cup of tea" and left the room.

that is so great, I remember the first time I heard 'Wax And Wane" on the radio (1983 I think but it might have been '82) and I was similarly transfixed. imo Head Over Heels has aged even better than the debut.

when I first heard about witch house I was hoping it would sound like this album — sadly not the case

The link between Siouxsie and the Cocteaus is Desert Kisses

Love this album

Five years on, I still haven't gone back to see if I like this better than I used to. That's just plain laziness.

Been listening to the BBC sessions and I'm more sure than ever that this era has some of the most visionary and inspiring dark fantasy I've ever witnessed.

oof maybe it's the quality of the vinyl pressing that i'm playing quite loud... but co-sign that the bass on this one is wonderfully fat and deep and GOTH

hot stamper

I got into them in the late 80s and bought this after only knowing Wax and Wane via The Pink Opaque. I was blown away, it’s so dark and insular and minimal. This and Lullabies are the early peak, I don’t even like Treasure anywhere near as much, then it’s all gravy from 86 to 90.

Johnny Fever have u checked this out yet?

I was going to post that I love this album, but I see I already did that 9 years ago

consistency: thy name is poo.

Since the 80's my only copy of this was a copy rendered on one of those shitty Woolworth's cassettes. It was murk on top of murk, my only thought was you could hear their potential...seeing the praise here tho, I'll give it a go in digital.

I was lucky enough to get the import CD back in the day, with the Peel session from this era, which was just icing on the cake. Truly a singular achievement.

If you dig the bass, though, you should follow Will Heggie to his band Lowlife.

yep that version is essential for fans b/c it has the only CD release of their very 1st single

That's news to me, was there a single before Garlands? There's nothing on Discogs and I've never heard of such a thing.
(a few Googles later) aha so it was an unreleased single "Speak No Evil" c/w "Perhaps Some Other Aeon"
I was toying with the idea of buying an original vinyl issue but I wonder if it would be better than the original CD, don't suppose anyone could provide a comparison?

I wonder why those two tracks weren't included on the singles box.

They weren't a single? neither were the four Peel session tracks on the CAD211 CD.

(included in the box, I mean)

they were planned as a single, but never released so... not in the singles box set.

worth noting that both tracks popped up on obscure releases at the time:

1982 compilation cassette

and

1983 flexidisc included with the Dutch magazine Vinyl

on the subject of secret Cocteau Twins tracks, they really should have added Need-Fire to one of their greatest hits comps, it's one of their best songs

whatttttt

*goes to Discogs* holy shit

don't play like you don't have the Judge Dredd soundtrack in your stacks already

I'm an 80's kid!! this was kinda past my era of involvement in that particular scene - it took me years to catch up to their post-HOLV output

fun fact: "need-fire" isn't a Fraserism, it's a Scottish practice whereby you start fires with friction and then drive sick cattle between them, first taking care to extinguish all other fires.

whoa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-fire

thanks!

lmao judge dredd wowww *heads to slsk*

xp "athol-brose" is also a Scots word, which you probably knew already - it's a drink made with whisky, honey and oats

this is very fun rabbit hole to go down! for example, Quisquose:

https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/quisquous

Love this album, tried to get a Garlands with the bonus tracks recently but it's going to have to be youtube.

Love this album so much. Still sad that the band doesn't rate this or Treasure very high because I think both are them at their most visionary.

this is very fun rabbit hole to go down! for example, Quisquose:

All is revealed! Back in the dark ages, we had only Britannica or whatever to find great spangled fritillary and whatnot.

It's great that some folks outside of Scotland now know the meaning of 'burl'.

That Dictionary of the Scots Language is awesome, I made extensive use of it when I was reading Isobel Gowdie's confessions. It's a charity organization funded by the Scottish government... they are happy to receive donations!