Cocteau Twins-head Over Heels

Post Punk albums - part 20034. Cocteau Twins-Head Over Heels (1983) 4AD I may have covered this one before(So forgive me). But this to me remains one of the best post punk albums, or should that be post gothic albums from the early 80’s. The Cocteau Twins were formed in 1981 in Grangemouth in Scotland which is a heavily industrialised place. How their music can be so beautiful yet from an area like this remains a mystery, they took their name from a very early Simple Minds track. But that is where any similarities end. Liz Fraser originally joined the band and then left, but with bands like the Birthday Party coming on the scene it had a knock on effect to the band, they started to raise interest in their recordings and presented a demo to the Birthday Party’s manager at the time who passed it on to the head of 4AD, Ivo. What I like about Head Over Heels is that it has this atmospheric backdrop of keyboards, echo sax. Where as Garlands and the 82-early 83 was a very bass driven sound. Then the 1984 ‘Treasure’, which is always considered one of their best works but in a way not brilliantly produced. Head Over Heels is the link between these two albums. In early 1983 Will Heggie left, mainly due to travelling to and from London and the album was recorded as a duo. Its a powerful album, the drum machine placed through echo, guitars overlap and sear on tracks like 'Mussette and Drums’. It starts with the 'When Mama was Moth’ which is a dense drum beat with guitars being dominant. It does features tracks where Fraser’s voice starts to flourish, but for most parts the vocals are quite audiable and not over layered. Other tracks like 'Sugar Hiccup’ show a sign of things to come, other tracks worth noting are 'Tinderbox’ and as mentioned before is 'Musette and Drums’ which features Robin Guthrie Guitar work as its best, etheral an gothic in its truest sense. Head Over Heels is a band that was getting to know their sounds and was developing. Compared to albums like 'Blue bell Knoll’ this is a more straight forward release, Simple yet powerful. Quite romantic in its nature and ambition. http://open.spotify.com/album/7anSOkSVKCykLrxe6yjp6e