Review of BBC Sessions

• Billboard
• 06-Nov 1999

The influence of England’s Cocteau Twins has ranged far and wide since the early ’80s, their pop phantasmagoria affecting bands as disparate and significant as My Bloody Valentine and Massive Attack — the latter even drafting the Twins’ vocalist Elisabeth Fraser to great effect for its 1998 “Mezzanine” album.

This treasurable two-disc set collects the Cocteau Twins’ epochal BBC broadcasts, the majority from 1982-84, when Fraser’s impressionistic vocalise, Robin Guthrie’s lush, carillon guitarscapes, and Simon Raymonde’s dark-hued bass defined the melodious outer limits of post-punk abstraction. Among the early standouts are “Wax And Wane,” “Pepper- Tree,” and “Beatrix,” as well as two versions each of “From The Flagstones,” “Hitherto,” and the roiling “Musette And Drums” — plus a previously unreleased instrumental, “My Hue And Cry,” and a grave, inspired cover of the Billie Holiday classic “Strange Fruit.” In ‘96, the Cocteau Twins revisited the BBC studios for two sessions, showing off a newly brightened, more communicative sound. “Seekers Who Are Lovers,” “Serpentskirt,” and the rhapsodic, deeply moving “Violane” rank among the group’s best work. Let’s hope this issue precedes a return to the studio for the Cocteau Twins, who for all their influence remain one of rock’s most inimitable voices. ▣