4AD to re-release Four-Calendar Café and Milk & Kisses in the US in 2024
- By CocteauTwins.com
- 4AD News
- 18-Oct 2023
4AD announced today that, in collaboration with Robin Guthrie, they will be releasing Four-Calendar Café and Milk & Kisses in the US in January 2024.
According to the announcement, “Robin Guthrie has returned to his original studio mixes and delivered stunning, brand new 24-bit masters of both titles. These reissues mark the first ever official US vinyl release for both titles and also the first time either have been released by 4AD, with both having previously been released in the US on Capitol Records.”
“These reissues will be available on black vinyl and CD from 12th January 2024 and are available for US customers to pre-order” online from the 4AD shop.
Guthrie had hinted at “things to come” in social media posts earlier this year.
4AD signed the trio (which at the time included Will Heggie) to their first record deal in 1981, and their LP Garlands followed in 1982. The band ultimately released six LPs, nine EPs, a compilation (The Pink Opaque, 1985) and a retrospective EPs and Singles Box Set (1991), before parting ways with the label that same year. 4AD subsequently released another retrospective, Stars and Topsoil in 2000, and another, Lullabies to Violaine, in 2005.
The band (who replaced Heggie with Simon Raymonde in late 1983) signed on with Fontana Records in the UK while keeping their relationship with US-based Capitol Records. Fontana released Four-Calendar Café (1993) and Milk & Kisses (1996), along with several singles and EPs, before Cocteau Twins breakup in 1997. Fontana has re-released both LPs, as well as a retrospective compilation, Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years (2018).
From 4AD: “Like most Cocteau Twins works before it, Four-Calendar Café was recorded and produced by the band, this time at their September Sound studio on the banks of the Thames in West London. A beautiful yet bittersweet record featuring the singles ‘Bluebeard,’ ‘Evangeline,’ and ‘Summerhead,’ the band manifest maturity and fragility in equal measure and while Liz’s lyrics remain cryptic, they’re more intelligible here. Complete with a memorable design of inanimate objects by the I Spy children’s book creator Walter Wick, Four-Calendar Café still stands tall going into its fourth decade.”
“A period of high creativity for the band, they recorded and produced Milk & Kisses between their September Sound studio in London and the coastal town of Pors Poulhan in Brittany, France. Featuring the singles “Tishbite” and “Violaine” and fan favorites such as “Serpentskirt” and “Treasure Hiding,” the album is a cathartic listen too, with MOJO saying in a glowing review that the album’s title “accurately intimates its soothing, healing powers.” Ultimately, Milk & Kisses proved their swan song, bringing the curtain down on 14 years of wonder to leave an incredible legacy that new generations continue to discover to this day.”
Four-Calendar Café will be assigned catalog number 4AD-0617 and Milk & Kisses will be 4AD-0618. ▣
Read the full article online from its source.
