Published on Oct 1, 2003
This music is far from conventional. It is ambiguous; yes, it
is. In all its equivocalness, it is cold, distant… frigid. From
“Know Who You Are At Every Age” to “Pur,” the songs deliver the
feeling of something like being cozy in one’s house, near the
fireplace, on a nicely curved couch, drinking an energizing cupful
of steaming, frothing hot coffee whilst reading one’s favorite
P.G.Wodehouse masterpiece and enjoying the beauty of the sight of
the raging blizzard of snow through one’s beautifully-crafted
French windows, and being only too glad to fit snugly in the place
one is occupying.
Elizabeth Fraser’s voice charms one with its softness and
beckons one into its realm of tenderness, insecurity and
warm-heartedness. The muffled vocals should not be taken with
slipshod attention. The vocals have been sung and blended with the
music, carefully attending to the minutest detail in the variation
of the pitch and tone.
Cocteau Twins have always been an elusive and mysterious band.
The artwork on this self-produced title is beautiful and minimal.
There are no band photographs and the credits amount to just a few
lines in some desolate corner of the booklet, as is the case with
every album of theirs. How is this fact relevant to the music, one
might ask, but it very much is. The singing of Fraser has never
been less than ambiguous. The words are almost impossible to
follow. When one seeks the booklet provided to help one in
understanding the lyrics, one is only confronted with a feeling of
dismay. There are absolutely no lyrics provided!! The booklet
consists of only a couple of flaps, of no written matter
whatsoever, except for just a few lines of forcefully written
credits, and this is the case with every Twins’ album, as stated
above. With Elizabeth’s beautifully, soothingly weird vocals, how
can one not feel compelled to refer the booklet provided to try to
figure out what the mesmerizing words sung by her are?
From the hauntingly muffled vocals to the absence of any printed
lyrics, all these elements add to the mystery of this underrated
band and the misery of the listener in making a futile attempt to
understand the Twins’ words. The beauty of this trio lies in this
mysterious character of their work and attitude.
There are no ‘favorite’ songs, nor are there any songs which
spoil the beauty of this CD. It works as an album, as a whole, with
every song adding its own charm in creating this unique celestial
atmosphere, which makes this album so lovable and something which
holds a very special place in my CD collection.