Garlands (1982)

Cocteau Twins’ debut successfully distinguished itself from the indie scene of the early ‘80s, but sounds positively embryonic in the context of what was to come. Their sole album with original bassist Will Heggie had people lazily comparing them to Siouxsie & The Banshees, but the stark TR-808 beats, cyclical guitars and arcs of feedback suggested something much more sinister and unknowable at play. While it is rudimentary and often overtly repetitive, something that the band could never be accused of in later years, Garlands nevertheless has a couple of enduring Cocteau classics like ‘Wax And Wane’ and ‘Blind Dumb Deaf’. (6/10) (LISTEN)

Head Over Heels (1983)

Trailed by three increasingly beautiful EPs, Cocteau Twins wasted no time following up their solid debut, Head Over Heels is an altogether more professional job in which the group’s sound is much more varied and closer to their soon-to-be trademark ethereality. The drums are lighter and don’t thud and clatter in the same way as the first record, while Simon Raymonde, making his debut on bass, makes the mix sound a lot fuller. Robin Guthrie refines his guitar sound, Fraser’s vocals are as inscrutable as ever, and Cocteau Twins were nearly there. (7/10) (LISTEN)

Treasure (1984)

Mysteriously, though the band themselves have never expressed fondness towards it, Treasure is almost universally adored by their fans, and critics hailed it as their first masterpiece. Indeed, it is the first time that the group’s alluring beauty first expressed itself fully, severing all ties with the lingering post-punk shapes of their first two releases. Treasure is an apt title, as the endlessly inventive and charming melodic lines and gorgeous textures of the Cocteau Twins’ rhythms are a delight to revisit.

The bright, full production values, combined with Fraser’s sing-song, swooping vocal gymnastics (see the stunning ‘Lorelei’), often makes the tracks sound as if they were made in another time and place altogether, a sense reinforced by the lace on the front cover and the mystical song titles (‘Donimo’, ‘Cicely’, etc.). Trailed by their first UK Top 40 success The Spangle Maker EP, which contained one of their signature songs ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’, the group was really picking up steam now. (9/10) (LISTEN)

Victorialand (1986)

Clocking in at nine tracks and just 32 minutes, Victorialand arrived after a fertile 1985 spent recording three stunning EPs (Aikea-Guinea, Tiny Dynamine, Echoes In A Shallow Bay). It was also recorded without Simon Raymonde, who was taking time out to work on 4AD’s other major dream-pop project This Mortal Coil (check out their ‘Song To The Siren’ while you’re here…), so instead of trying to compensate for the lack of bass in other ways, Fraser and Guthrie simply stuck to what they did best, making it a different kind of Cocteau Twins album.

While this makes Victorialand even more ethereal and abstract than normal, it doesn’t suffer for it. Drenched in reverberating acoustic guitars and almost completely devoid of percussion and bass, the mixes are frequently vivacious despite the faint rhythmical pulses. Splashes of jazz were provided on ‘Feet-Like Fins’ and the gorgeous opener ‘Lazy Calm’ courtesy of Dif Juz’s saxophonist Richard Thomas. Even for Cocteau Twins, Victorialand is an acquired taste, but no less rewarding. (8/10) (LISTEN)

The Moon And The Melodies (1986)

A collaboration album with the American avant-garde composer Harold Budd, The Moon And The Melodies wasn’t actually credited to the Cocteau Twins (the cover named the three members individually), but the resultant music fits snugly between the stylistic signatures of both artists. Bringing back Richard Thomas who had contributed to Victorialand, it features echoing, sparse piano courtesy of Budd and all the shimmering trappings fans had come to expect from the trio. However, there’s a pervasive sense of conservatism despite the wealth of talent on offer, making The Moon And The Melodies one for the die-hards only. (6/10) (LISTEN)

Blue Bell Knoll (1988)

Cocteau Twins’ sixth album in as many years has always been something of an opinion-splitter among critics and fans alike, with some regarding it as up there with their finest work, and others dismissing it as a step backwards, low on innovation. As ever, the truth is somewhere in between: undeniably pretty and highly melodic at times, it can only really criticised on the grounds that it was nothing the band hadn’t done before. Guitars are bright, drums are crisp and well-defined, and tracks like ‘For Phoebe Still A Baby’ and ‘Carolyn’s Fingers’ would rank highly in any fan’s list of best Cocteaus songs, but there’s just a lingering sense that the group is on the edge of creative burnout after such a productive run, not quite operating at full capacity. (7/10) (LISTEN)

Heaven Or Las Vegas (1990)

Proving that new parenthood doesn’t necessarily cause total burnout, Fraser and Guthrie’s baby daughter proved to be the inspiration for what Ivo Watts-Russell described as 4AD’s finest ever album. Heaven Or Las Vegas is the warmest and most inviting of all the group’s back catalogue, indicated by the bold blues and reds of the artwork where previous works had been monochrome or sepia-tinted. Simon Raymonde’s rhythms and drum programming shares equal billing, alongside some of Robin Guthrie’s most distinctive guitar soundscapes and, for the first time, intelligible lyrics from Liz Fraser!

The likes of ‘Iceblink Luck’ and ‘Fifty-Fifty Clown’ positively throb with energy, but the trademark Cocteau Twins sense of atmosphere and mystery comes through on ‘Fotzepolitic’ or the closing mood-piece ‘Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires’. Fraser gives some of her most spectacular vocal performances yet, encapsulated in the graceful arcs over the top of the title track. As pop-orientated as it was impressionistic and avant-garde, Heaven Or Las Vegas was the second masterpiece of their career. For those unfamiliar with Cocteau Twins, there is no better introduction to their unique sound than this. (9/10) (LISTEN)

Four-Calendar Café (1993)

Cocteau Twins’ departure from 4AD continued their journey into more accessible territory, with Fraser’s vocals and lyrics now telling discernible stories with a desire to be heard. Heartbroken with shafts of light occasionally penetrating through the misery, Four-Calendar Café is very much business as usual despite the noticeable commercial sheen to the production. The major problem with it is a lack of memorable highlights, and although ‘Evangeline’ and ‘Bluebeard’ became comparatively successful singles with major label support, things are merely consistently quite good throughout. With the dawn of Britpop the group seemed like a band from another time entirely, and the hoped-for commercial breakthrough didn’t happen. Perhaps things might have ended differently for Cocteau Twins, and Four-Calendar Café represents that fork in the road. (6/10) (LISTEN)

Milk & Kisses (1996)

Never has a band treaded water so spectacularly. By now, Cocteau Twins were in a comfortable rut of their own making, undisputed masters of a sub-genre they had pretty much single-handedly created, perfected, but ultimately couldn’t really improve upon. Milk & Kisses, therefore, seems like a fitting swansong even though they clearly weren’t operating at full capacity. Boasting the cleanest, indie-ist production yet, it was awash with ethereal voices, hypnotic guitars, liquid rhythms… pretty much everything you’d come to expect from them by this point, basically. Oddly, for all that, it might be one of the first Cocteau Twins records you’d recommend to a newcomer, showcasing pretty much every aspect of the group, with ‘Violane’ in particular being one of their finest singles yet. Milk & Kisses is the sound of a band doing nothing groundbreaking, but doing it beautifully. (7/10) (LISTEN)