Disco de Cocteau Twins: “Garlands”

This is perhaps a more guitar-oriented album than most other Cocteau Twins albums; the roaring gothic guitar lines of Robin Guthrie dominate the soundscape, but without displacing Liz Frazer's deadly vocal stylings, which seem more sweet on most future releases. It's a chilling, very gothic piece of work. Though their first lp, it reveals a different side of the Twins' music.

"Garlands" came out in 1982, so it belongs to a scene and an aesthetic very different from the one that the Twins belonged to in the mid-80s. Think of Joy Division, Lydia Lunch, or early Siouxsie and the Banshees. The mid-80s indie and alternative scene, or at least the part of it that the Twins identified with most, was less intensely morbid or dark than the dense post-punk that had preceded it; so that a later Twins album like Treasure has a certain aesthetic identification with New Order or the Smiths. In fact, the change that the Cocteau Twins underwent mirrors the one by which Joy Division morphed into New Order. It was actually a very good thing that the aesthetics changed, but on "Garlands", you can hear a band that easily holds its own with (and even surpasses) something like "Pornography"-era Cure.

out of all the Cocteau's albums, this is the only one i like. just like Dead Can Dance's first album, it totally different from the rest of their catalogue. it's atmospheirc and eerie. it's like The Cure's Seventeen Seconds/Fatih/Pornography with cEvin key of Skinny Puppy doing the 808 drum machine programming. but even that comparison doesn't describe it as well as just listening to it. i love all the tracks. i listen to it from start to finish. Liz's vocals are are so...*sigh*...perfect. Robin's guitars are so...*sigh* perfect. this album is definately gothic...nocturnal...autumnal...wintry...gloomy...a good rainy sunday album...or a good burning-the-midnight-oil album(much like a Joy Division album). it's such a dark and pretty little debut album.

"Garlands", the first of many Cocteau Twins masterpieces is definitely the odd-one-out. If you've been listening to the Twins' other work, which has its own classic, unique sound, you'll definitely be shocked after hearing "Garlands." If the Cocteau Twins have a really dark album, this is definitely it, with its angry, menacing-sounding guitar and constant, dark beats via a drum-machine (which I really love, by the way). The vocals here aren't light and heavenly like on the releases to come (especially Victorialand); they sound spooky and haunting. The best songs, in my opinion, are "Wax and Wane," "Shallow then Halo," "Blind Dumb Deaf" and "Garlands."

I wouldn't recommend starting off your Cocteau Twins' collection with Garlands, because it isn't an accurate portrayal of the Cocteau Twins' sound. After Garlands, it completely changed. If you are interested in starting somewhere, I would highly recommend getting "Treasure" first, because it combines all of the Cocteau Twins' sound. However, Garlands is one of my most favorite Cocteau Twins albums and you should definitely own it.

Garlands, combined with the excellent John Peels session 1983, is perhaps my all time favourite album. I don't usually feel compelled to write reviews but because of the mixed reviews I've read about this musical masterpiece, I thought I might shed some light on the situation as I see it.

It seems to me that Cocteau Twins fans are divided into two camps. The first camp consists of those, like myself, who like the Twins grinding post-punky material from the Will Heggie period - their first bass player who played on Garlands, John Peel Session 83, Lullabies, and Peppermint Pig, and who left in 1983. The second camp consists of those who prefer the shoegazingly post-Will Heggie material, and this camp very much forms the majority as about 95% of CT music is from this period (1983 - 98). So is it any wonder that Garlands gets some negative reviews if 95% of those reviewing it have `second camp' expectations. That said, one must bear in mind that when Garlands was released before this second camp existed, even before shoe-gazing existed, the album made a serious mark on the indie-music zeitgeist of 1982. With no press exposure and only a handful of live shows the album reached the top 10 in the independent chart where it stayed for the following year. At the end of 1982 NME readers voted it among the best albums of the year. God only knows how the Twins would have progressed from Garlands if Heggie had have stayed - I'd dare to suggest that they could have made an impact like say Joy Division did.

In fact, with the exception of Head Over Heels and the odd gem like From the Flagstones, Lorelie, or Aikea Ginea, I find a lot of their later stuff rather insipid. I even find some of Liz Frazer's vocals a little grating (eg, Pearly Dewdrops Drops) and I feared the band ran the risk of becoming a parody of themselves with overblown alliterated assonance-laden titles (eg Spooning Good Singing Gum or The Itchy Glowbo Blow). But that's just me however!

As far Garlands itself. From its spectacular abstract sleeve, which aptly represents the intense journey the listener is about to take, right down to Liz Frazer's final wail to see Grail Overfloweth out, Garlands is powerful stuff and I've never heard anything like it. The album is the coming together of three musicians, all uniquely brilliant in their departments, who have a mutual understanding and manage to create a synergic result. Robin Guthrie's high pitched screeching guitar is almost juxtaposed alongside Will Heggie's low-pitched morose bass. And then throw Liz Frazer's powerfully raw vocals into the mix. I'm undecided as to which is my favourite track. Wax and Wane was the initial one that hooked me, as I'm sure it did for many listeners, but as time went on, I find myself falling for the albums less linear songs like The Hollow Men. Basically I like them all. If purchasing this album try to get it combined with the excellent John Peels session 1983 - Hearsay Please has possibly got the best intro I've ever heard, second only to that of Dear Heart.

My only two criticisms of Garlands, although not criticisms but more observations. I sometimes think the album, even though timeless in my opinion, would have fared better if it had have been released about three years earlier so that it really would have tied in with the post-punk movement of 1979. Another thing I often wonder about - what might the album sound like if it had a real drummer rather than a drum machine - maybe this could be Robin Guthrie's next project!!

All in all, it seems people will either love this album or hate it and I most certainly fall into the former.

After hearing the incredible "Treasure" and "Victorialand", this one was a bit of a disappointment, though the edgy tunes are quite infectious, especially "But I'm Not" ,"The Hollow Men", and the John Peel Session tunes, which are a foreshadowing of the more interesting stuff on "Head Over Heels/Sunburst and Snowblind". Interestingly, that breathy yodel that Fraser does on these early albums was imitated by Fiona Apple on her latest. Nothing like the original!