Treasure / Cocteau Twins // Official website

“I thought it was a really good idea because I thought, well, what are people gonna see in these names? They’re gonna realise it’s got nothing to do with mythology and all that bollocks. Well, it’s not bollocks, but I foolishly thought people wouldn’t think that we were into that sort of thing.” Elizabeth Fraser

“Treasure sounds to me like a really dated record, because of the early digital stuff and the technology we used on that record. It’s got good things on it, but it’s certainly not got that timeless quality.” Robin Guthrie

Treasure

October 1984
4AD
CAD 412
41 min, 34 sec

Track listing

Ivo
Lorelei
Beatrix
Persephone
Pandora (for Cindy)
Amelia
Aloysius
Cicely
Otterley
Donimo

Formats

Vinyl
Cassette
CD
Digital

Performers

Release notes

All titles written and produced by Cocteau Twins.
Recorded during August and September, 1984 at Palladium Studios, Edinburgh and Rooster, West London.
Engineered by Jon Turner and Droston J. Madden.
Thanks to Yvonne and Pierrot for sleeve props.
Art direction, design and photography by 23 Envelope.

Some versions of CADC412 (cassette) and CAD412CD (CD) manufactured in 1985 included tracks from the EP Aikea-Guinea.
Treasure peaked at #29 on the UK album chart.
Alternate Peel Session recordings were done for “Ivo,” “Beatrix,” and “Otterley.” The then-working title for “Beatrix” was “Whisht.”
“Lorelei,” “Pandora” and “Aloysius” have appeared in live performances, including a live remix of “Aloysius,” by Mark Clifford, during the 1996 Milk & Kisses tour.
“Lorelei” was performed live on the UK television programme “The Old Grey Whistle Test” in 1985.
“Lorelei” was featured on the 1985 compilation The Pink Opaque.
“Lorelei” and “Pandora” are featured on the 2000 compilation Stars and Topsoil.
Treasure was digitally remastered and re-released by 4AD in 2003.
“Lorelei” was included in the 2005 4AD compilation 1980 Forward.
In 2012, Elizabeth Fraser gave two solo performances in Bath and London, England, during which she performed a new arrangement of “Donimo.”
The song “Pandora“‘s dedication, for Cindy, is a reference to friend Cinder, otherwise formerly known as ‘Gordon Sharp’, of the band Cindytalk.
Included in Pitchfork.com’s “Top 100 Albums of the 80s.”
Ranked #17 on Paste Magazine’s “Top 25 Dream Pop Albums of All Time.”
In 2020, The Cure’s Robert Smith named “Persephone” one of his “30 favourite songs of the 1980s.”
In 2022, Rolling Stone cited “Pandora (for Cindy)” as one of its “50 Best Goth Songs of All Time.”