“Overlooked Albums #42: Cocteau Twins Blue Bell Knoll”

• By Angel Aguilar
• No Ripcord: Independent Music and Film Magazine
• 22-Aug 2015

Pop eats itself. Chart success demands the repetition of formulas until the last vestige of originality is exhausted.

In the current state of music, things have been flatlining for a while. At this moment, our top pop divas are doing their darnedest to avoid obsolescence, trusting publicity stunts over musical chops. Most indie groups don’t have the tools to compete in this climate. The system is rigged against them. Yet musical innovation finds fertile ground among the outcasts, and every once in a while new paradigms replace worn-out models, sparking a sense of common endeavor. Take the case of the Cocteau Twins, pioneers of dream pop, whose first albums saw modest success at best. When their style of music finally caught on, they had myriad groups following in their wake. It goes to show that the future often walks in uninvited.

There are precedents for dream pop. You find traces of it in the otherworldly echo-laden guitars of Santo and Johnny (Sleepwalk), the haunting vocals of Patsy Cline (Sweet Dreams), and the multilayered constructions of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. Yet the point of inflection for dream pop came with punk, which allowed bands to experiment through trial and error despite their musical limitations. Suddenly, new bands were shunning the slick multitracked studio sound that ruled AOR throughout the seventies. Young Turks now questioned the fixed ways of doing things, dodging their way in for a spot behind the recording console. This was fertile ground for the Cocteau Twins, who from the start had control of their studio sound. Theirs was a simple set up of guitar (Robin Guthrie), bass (original member Will Heggie), vocals (Elizabeth Fraser), and programmed drums; but the sound was big—a dynamic blend of echoey bottoms, reverberating midranges, and diaphanous highs.

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