Garlands / Cocteau Twins // Official website

“We made two tapes, and I went to London with them and I gave one to Ivo and one to John Peel. We had no phone, so I wrote down the number of the phone box down the road and ‘call between five and six’ on the cassette case, and I’d wait outside every night for a call! There wasn’t a doubt in my mind they’d both ring. John Peel wrote us back a nice letter saying that it was really good and everything, and Ivo phoned us and said, ‘Hey, wanna come and make a record?’ It was sort of…we were sort of naïve and into what we were doing so much that we almost sort of expected, you know… We just sort of expected it. ‘Of course we want to make a record! We’re fucking good!’ You know…no trouble.” Robin Guthrie

Garlands

July 1982
4AD
CAD 211
32 min, 22 sec

Track listing

Blood Bitch
Wax and Wane
But I’m Not
Blind Dumb Deaf
Shallow Then Halo
The Hollow Men
Garlands
Grail Overfloweth

Peel Sessions

Available on CD and audio cassette versions

Dear Heart (featuring Gordon Sharp)
Hearsay Please
Hazel (featuring Gordon Sharp)
Blind Dumb Deaf

Previously unreleased

Available on CD and audio cassette versions

Speak No Evil
Perhaps Some Other Aeon

Formats

Vinyl
Cassette
CD
Digital

Performers

Release notes

Produced by Ivo and Cocteau Twins.
All titles written by Cocteau Twins.
Engineered by Eric and John at Blackwing Studios.
Thanks to Ivo, Vince and Nigel.
Art direction, design and photography by 23 Envelope.

CADC211 (cassette) and CAD211CD (CD) featured additional Peel Session tracks “Dear Heart,” “Hearsay Please,” “Hazel,” and “Blind Dumb Deaf,” as well as previously unreleased tracks “Speak No Evil” and “Perhaps Some Other Aeon.”
Additional Peel Session vocals on “Dear Heart” and “Hazel” by Cinder, credited as ‘Gordon Sharp’, of Cindytalk and This Mortal Coil.
Lyrics from “But I’m Not,” “Shallow then Halo,” “Garlands,” and “Grail Overfloweth” are printed on the inner sleeve of the vinyl release.
“Speak No Evil” and “Perhaps Some Other Aeon” were originally intended as a single and b-side, but were shelved in favor of the full album.
The bonus Peel Session tracks on the original compact disc and audio cassette releases have the songs “Hearsay Please” and “Hazel” listed out of order.
A remixed version of “Wax and Wane” is available on the 1985 release The Pink Opaque.
Peel Session recordings were later released as part of BBC Sessions, in 1999. “Dear Heart” and “Hearsay Please” have never been released as studio recordings.
“Wax and Wane” was performed during the 1996 Milk & Kisses Tour, remixed live by Mark Clifford.
A remastered version of “Blind Dumb Deaf” appears on the 2000 compilation Stars and Topsoil.
Garlands was digitally remastered and re-released by 4AD in 2003. The artwork for the first pressing of the remaster incorrectly labels the track “Blood Bitch” as “Blood Bath.” It is a typographical error that was subsequently corrected.
Voted #59 of “Scotland’s 100 Best Rock and Pop Albums” in 2003.
The vinyl pressing was re-released 4AD in 2010 as part of a special remastered 180g box set.
In 2020, 4AD re-released Garlands with remastered audio pressed to 140 gram vinyl and the original 23 Envelope artwork and photography.