“I’ve never received a royalty statement for that album, which is interesting.” Robin Guthrie
Lonely Is An Eyesore
- June 1987
- 4AD
- CAD 703
Track listing
- Crushed
Formats
- Vinyl
- Cassette
- CD
- Digital
- VHS
Performers
Release notes
- Lonely Is An Eyesore was a special 4AD project which included a compilation of 4AD roster artists as of 1987, each performing selected songs recorded exclusively for this release. The record was produced in several formats and compositions, and was accompanied by a video compilation of the same songs.
- The title is taken from a lyric in the Throwing Muses’ contribution to the collection, “Fish.”
- “Crushed” was recorded exclusively for Lonely Is An Eyesore, and has only been released elsewhere as part of the 1991 EPs and Singles Box Set. It was recorded at the same time as the 1986 EP, Love’s Easy Tears.
- A video for “Crushed” was produced for and featured in the video compilation which accompanied Lonely Is An Eyesore.
- “Crushed” has subsequently been featured in occasional live performances.
- The following excerpt is from the Lonely Is An Eyesore insert booklet:
“Why waste your time?” demanded the cab driver when he found out I was on my way to talk to the Cocteau Twins. His voice came muffled but certain through the perspex screen. “You know you’ve run out of terms of description. And once that’s happened, all you can do is start talking about the subjective experiences their music can enhance. Then, no matter how heady you get, you’ll miss the essence of the whole thing.
“Fact is,” he said, steering briskly towards West London, “a good Cocteau Twins record is as good as a good Shangri-Las record. But if you’d asked Shadow Morton, even he’d have found it impossible to evaluate. It’s just an uncanny but natural complicity with the heart of the pop beast, an untouchable way of expressing it. Listening to the Shangri-Las is walking in the sand, not just a bloody soundtrack. And no matter how abstracted a Cocteau Twins record can become, it leaves the same space for you to implant your own thoughts. That’s just the way it works.”
“I just like the way it spirals upwards,” I pointed out lamely. “And I think it’s time they had another hot single.”
“The only incandescent pearls of light within a mile radius of the Cocteau Twins,” he continued, ignoring me, “are in their music. Not your gob, mine, or anyone else’s…”
With that, I told him to turn back for home. He was getting too belligerent, it was a fruitless journey and besides, I’d always hated people who got the last word in…
— Arthur Parker, 1987
Listen and buy online
Video
“Crushed” official video © 4AD 1987.
Press
- Old Music: Cocteau Twins’ “Crushed”
- The Guardian | 21-Mar 2013
- “Lonely Is An Eyesore”
- Melody Maker | 04-Jul 1987