“The Fangasm: Garlands by Cocteau Twins”

• By Brian Coney
• Drowned in Sound
• 22-Sep 2017

When it was released via Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent’s new-fangled 4AD label back in early September 1982, Garlands, by recently-formed Scottish trio Cocteau Twins, couldn’t have felt further removed from the anodyne pop cartelizing the upper end of the UK charts.

With punk long dead in the water, New Wave buckling at its knees and the likes of Duran Duran and Dexy’s Midnight Runners proving as pervasive as E.T. hype and ra-ra skirts, guitarist Robin Guthrie, bassist Will Heggie, 17-year-old vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and a Roland TR-808 drum machine got together to forge an anxious and darkly debut album that doubled up as the relentlessly oppressive antithesis to ‘Come On Eileen’ and Simon Le Bloody Bon.

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