“Things don’t influence us directly, but things do get through. To me, ‘Bluebeard’ sounds nothing like country music. It just sounds like us playing a twangy guitar. So it was really a guitar that created that song. A big guitar. It’s just that if we do country it comes out sounding like Cocteau Twins. If we do anything it comes out sounding like Cocteau Twins.” Robin Guthrie
Bluebeard
- February 1994
- Fontana/Mercury & Capitol
- CTCD2
- 14 min, 29 sec
Track listing
- Bluebeard
- Three-Swept
- Ice-Pulse
- Bluebeard (acoustic version)
Formats
- Vinyl
- Cassette
- CD
- Digital
Performers
Release notes
- Written, performed, and produced by Cocteau Twins.
- Additional engineering by Lincoln Fong.
- Recorded and mixed at September Sound, London.
- Original photography by Walter Wick. Sleeve design by Lifeboat Matey.
- Peaked at #33 in the UK album chart.
- A promotional video was produced for “Bluebeard.”
- “Bluebeard” has appeared in live performances, and was performed live on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”—Cocteau Twins’ first television appearance in the US.
- Digitally remastered and re-released in 2005 as part of Lullabies to Violaine.
- All tracks from Bluebeard were included in the 2018 release Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years.
- If one listens carefully, one can hear Liz curse just at the beginning of the acoustic version of “Bluebeard.”
- In English folklore, Bluebeard is a fairy-tale character who marries and then murders one wife after another.
Listen and buy online
Videos
Press
- Cocteau Twins featured on Spotify’s ‘Bandsplain’ podcast
- NEWS | 16-Sep 2021
- “Six Definitive Songs: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Cocteau Twins”
- Far Out | Jul 2021
- Tim Burgess and Simon Raymonde co-host Twitter ‘Listening Party’ for Four-Calendar Café
- NEWS | 18-Oct 2020
- “A Buyer’s Guide to Cocteau Twins”
- Sun-13 | 6-Aug 2020
- “The truth is not perfect: Robin Guthrie on the Cocteau Twins’ major label years”
- Sonic Cathedral | 31-May 2020
- “Virtual Ethereality”
- Creem | May 1994
- Interview
- Polish Television TVP2 | May 1994
- “Café of Pain”
- B-Side | Apr/May 1994
- “At the Cocteau Café”
- Los Angeles Times | 02-Apr 1994
- Interview
- On the Edge | Apr 1994
- “The Demons Within”
- Propaganda: Gothic Chronicle | April 1994
- Interview with Robin Guthrie
- Dewdrops Fanzine 1994
- “Ethereal this, thicky”
- Alternative Press | Feb 1994
- “Heart to Tape”
- Mix | Dec 1993
- Review of Four-Calendar Café
- Entertainment Weekly | 19-Nov 1993
- Interview
- Raygun | Nov 1993
- “Sound Whirl”
- The Wire | Nov 1993
- Review of Four-Calendar Café
- Details | Nov 1993
- Retrospective Discography
- NME/New Musical Express | 02-Oct 1993
- Untitled
- NME/New Musical Express | 02-Oct 1993
- “Botanic Rites”
- Vox | Oct 1993
- Review of Four-Calendar Café
- Melody Maker 1993
- Interview
- WXPN Philadelphia Radio 1993
- “No More Pre-Raphaelite Bullshit”
- Lime Lizard | Oct 1993
- “Obscured by Words”
- Mondo 2000 | Oct 1993
- “Fraser-Guided Melodies”
- Select | Oct 1993
- Interview
- Anti-Matter | Oct 1993
- “Dreams of Consciousness”
- Melody Maker | 11-Sep 1993
- “Cocteaus’ Experiential ‘Calendar’”
- Billboard | 11-Sep 1993