Garlands

Can't understand why even die hard Cocteaus fans are are harsh on this album,for me its superb.punk influences evident especially siouxsie and the banshees and all the better for it...

Garlands, combined with the excellent John Peels session 1983, is perhaps my all time favourite album. I don’t usually feel compelled to write reviews but because of the mixed reviews I’ve read about this musical masterpiece, I thought I might shed some light on the situation as I see it.It seems to me that Cocteau Twins fans are divided into two camps. The first camp consists of those, like myself, who like the Twins grinding post-punky material from the Will Heggie period – their first bass player who played on Garlands, John Peel Session 83, Lullabies, and Peppermint Pig, and who left in 1983. The second camp consists of those who prefer the shoegazingly post-Will Heggie material, and this camp very much forms the majority as about 95% of CT music is from this period (1983 – 98). So is it any wonder that Garlands gets some negative reviews if 95% of those reviewing it have ‘second camp’ expectations. That said, one must bear in mind that when Garlands was released before this second camp existed, even before shoe-gazing existed, the album made a serious mark on the indie-music zeitgeist of 1982. With no press exposure and only a handful of live shows the album reached the top 10 in the independent chart where it stayed forthe following year. At the end of 1982 NME readers voted it among the best albums of the year. God only knows how the Twins would have progressed from Garlands if Heggie had have stayed – I’d dare to suggest that they could have made an impact like say Joy Division did.In fact, with the exception of Head Over Heels and the odd gem like From the Flagstones, Lorelie, or Aikea Ginea, I find a lot of their later stuff rather insipid. I even find some of Liz Frazer’s vocals a little grating (eg, Pearly Dewdrops Drops) and I feared the band ran the risk of becoming a parody of themselves with overblown alliterated assonance-laden titles (eg Spooning Good Singing Gum or The Itchy Glowbo Blow). But that’s just me however!As far Garlands itself. From its spectacular abstract sleeve, which aptly represents the intense journey the listener is about to take, right down to Liz Frazer’s final wail to see Grail Overfloweth out, Garlands is powerful stuff and I’ve never heard anything like it. The album is the coming together of three musicians, all uniquely brilliant in their departments, who have a mutual understanding and manage to create a synergic result. Robin Guthrie’s high pitched screeching guitar is almost juxtaposed alongside Will Heggie’s low-pitched morose bass. And then throw Liz Frazer’s powerfully raw vocals into the mix. I’m undecided as to which is my favourite track. Wax and Wane was the initial one that hooked me, as I’m sure it did for many listeners, but as time went on, I find myself falling for the albums less linear songs like The Hollow Men. Basically I like them all. If purchasing this album try to get it combined with the excellent JohnPeels session 1983 – Hearsay Please has possibly got the best intro I’ve ever heard, second only to that of Dear Heart.My only two criticisms of Garlands, although not criticisms but more observations. I sometimes think the album, even though timeless in my opinion, would have fared better if it had have been released about three years earlier so that it really would have tied in with the post-punk movement of 1979. Another thing I often wonder about – what might the album sound like if it had a real drummer rather than a drum machine – maybe this could be Robin Guthrie’s next project!!All in all, it seems people will either love this album or hate it and I most certainly fall into the former.

CD appearance and sound like pirated copy!Money for nothing!!!

Masterpiece

no scratches, the cd and the booklet absolutely as new. thanks again!

The 1st from the original twins ..

I love the Cocteaus. This isn't their best but it's great nonetheless. Makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.That's what it's like.

I can't believe the negative comments I've been reading about this album. I owned it on vinyl as an angst-ridden student in the early 1980s, and just loved its dark, haunting and melancholy sounds. Yes it was a raw sound, but nonetheless wonderful. For some reason I never bought any of their subsequent albums, and therefore recently purchased, out of curiosity, one of their collections albums (Stars And Topsoil), believing that the standards set with Garlands may have been maintained, or even improved upon. I was a little bit disappointed. After Garlands it seems they lost much of their moody and melancholy minor key sound, which I had loved, and now seemed to create music that was far too optimistic, and mostly in major keys. So, to me, Garlands seems to have been Cocteau Twins' high point, an absolute gem.

Zugegeben: dieses Album ist mir zu persönlich und begleitet mich zu lange, als dass ich über die musikalische Seite möglichst sachlich und objektiv schreiben könnte. Außerdem haben schon genug Vorredner darüber geschrieben. Vielleicht nur so viel: Für mich persönlich ist dies das beste Album von Cocteau Twins, danach ging ich für das Trio mit jedem weiteren Album (Ausnahme: Victorialand) immer weiter verloren. Meine steile These obendrauf: Ohne "Garlands" hätte es womöglich kein Portishead, kein Massive Attack, kurz: kein Trip-Hop gegeben.Nun habe ich doch über das Inhaltliche geschrieben. Gelobe keine Besserung.Nun die technische Seite, die ist hier entscheidend. Vorweg: Diese Version klingt schon in etwa so, wie es die ursprüngliche LP klang. Da ich kürzlich ein besterhaltenes Exemplar der alten LP gefunden habe, kann ich nun wieder direkt vergleichen. Keine Angst, es wird trotzdem kurz und knapp. Die Kandidaten:1. Die LP. Nicht die Erstausgabe, leider, dennoch eine der Pressungen aus der Zeit, ohne Bonus-Tracks, ohne Gedöns, mit Schwarzweiß-Plattenlabel.2. CD-Ausgabe aus den 1990er mit Bonus in Form von vier Peel-Session-Tracks plus zwei weiteren Rare-Tracks. ("Alt-CD")3. Die "Remastered" CD-Ausgabe, um die es hier geht. ("Neu-CD")Die Ergebnisse in aller subjektiven Kürze:1. Die LP: Das Original war rau, dunkel und so hört es sich auf der LP auch an, damals wie heute. Fast ist der Geruch der heiß gewordenen Schlagzeugmaschine zu spüren, alternativ die Wärme der Revox-Maschine, von der die Drum-Sektion live gespielt war (weil der Drumcomputer fehleranfällig gewesen ist). Die Basslinie steht erstaunlich fest, die Gitarrenwolken wirbeln im Kontrast ganz schön Staub auf. Die Stimme von Liz ist in diesem minimalistisch geordneten Chaos immer anwesend. Die zeittypischen Reverb- und Delay-Fähnchen entfalten sich hörbar.2. Die "Alt-CD". Sie klang nie besonders. Alles ist irgendwie da: der Drumcomputer, die Gitarre, die Basslinie, die Frau Frazer. Aber: es geht die ganze Magie flöten. Ich weiß nicht, weshalb; sorry. Ich bin der Letzte, der die LP an sich glorifizieren würde. Doch die alte CD ist anscheinend dem Bestreben anheim gefallen, das Vorhandene möglichst klar, scharf und reinraumrein auf die Silberscheibe zu pressen. Das wirbelt keinen Staub mehr, das klingt nur nach typisch schwachbrüstigem 1980er Digital Mastering (was "Garlands" nie war). Da helfen auch die Bonus-Tracks von Peel & Co. am Ende nichts.3. Die "Neu-CD" - um die es hier geht. Diese ist nicht nur wieder mit den ursprünglichen Tracks (ohne Extras) dem original gleich; sie klingt auch so. Hier hat der Mastering-Meister wirklich den Geist erkannt und auf übertriebene Digitalisierungs-Euphorie verzichtet. Denke ich jedenfalls. Wiederum: wie das wirklich gemacht wurde, kann ich auch hier nicht sagen. Aber diese staubige Bühne "full of dust and guitars" ist hier wieder da. Wie auf einer LP, nur ohne Knackser.Die "alte CD" behalte ich trotzdem, weil… nun ja, habe ich anfangs nicht erwähnt, dass ich eine ganz persönliche Beziehung zu diesem Album habe? Und ja, diese Beziehung ist von der unerschütterlichen Sorte.

Etlichen CT-Fans gefällt Garlands nicht ganz so gut wie spätere Alben, da die Musik hier noch einen Tick rauer und melancholischer ist als später.Das ist sicherlich Geschmackssache - bei mir läuft das Ding auf heavy rotation. Ein bisschen frühe Kate Bush, dazu die hier schon erwähnten Siouxie and the Banshees und Gitarrenriffs wie auf "Pornography" von The Cure - bei weitem nicht so düster wie Joy Division. Grandios!

Hallo. Ich bin sehr zufrieden. Tolle Arbeit. Danke schön.

Aucun morceau n'est à jeter ... album sublime

Very subtle and at time spooky. Wonderful album. Ms. Fraser's vocals are superb.

Fantastic transaction. Item arrived as described. All risks and costs were outlined before purchase. A+++++++

I love the music on this darkest of the Twins material. This 2020 remaster and vinyl pressing is good, if a little noisy. The vinyl shows a fair amount of groove rush and some pops and clicks here and there. I wish 4AD used MPO as their pressing house like they used to....The cover is nicely printed on semigloss stock, the inner sleeve is a nice anti static paper/plastic affair, and mine came with a download card which allowed for CD-res flac files.For those who care about sound quality: the 24/96 stream on Qobuz sounds like the best version to my ears (smooth and dynamic), followed by this LP, then the original CD and finally the download that I got with this purchase (which is quite compressed and sounds a bit harsh). I do not have any previous vinyl pressings to compare, but my guess is the original European LPs would be the best sounding versions if you can get your hands on one.

This album will almost certainly not be embraced by the majority of people who came to the Cocteau Twins late in the game via Blue Bell Knoll or Heaven and Las Vegas. Given that the Cocteau Twins (though critical darlings and definitely influential) are still more or less a CULT band after all these years - their reputation no greater than when they first began - this anomaly in their catalog is truly an underrated masterpiece. It is a lost classic in the POST PUNK and GOTH ROCK genres, easily holding it's own against Joy Division's UNKNOWN PLEASURES, Siouxsie and the Banshee's KALEiDOSCOPE and Bauhaus' IN THE FLAT FIELD. Although it has a unique, turgid sound and might actually be more arty than any of those albums, with it's single minded emphasis on dirge and moonrock textures. If you are not a fan of Goth, Post Punk or brittle bands like P.I.L. or early Gene Loves Jezebel - I'd stay away. All other newcomers, Listen in the dark and get swallowed.

In 1982, Cocteau Twins already had the murky, shimmering wall of guitar sound they were looking for. Back then, the noise was distorted and feedback laden. The vocals were unharmonized and close to decipherable. Liz sang in her haunting mid-range, and the music was minimal, underwritten and dark, relying on only a couple alternating melodies for each song's duration.Comparisons to Joy Division and The Cure make some sense, although this album has a chaotic, wicked, mysterious delirium about it that those bands never captured, opting instead for bleak, intense depression. This is the only album in the Cocteau's entire catalog that is completely the missing positive, lilting shoegazer hit material such as "Pearly Dewdrop's Drops" and "Sugar Hiccup". Their new age, "dreamy" soft white aesthetic had yet to emerge.This is not the say "Garlands" is one-dimensional; far from it. If anything, the vague, unrefined simplicity of these slabs of distortion makes them more open to interpretation than the much catchier songs on the two albums that came after this, "Head Over Heels" and "Treasure".As always with this band, it's Liz's vocal performance that makes the album. She proves that even though the intense harmonization (5+ voices at once) of later albums is incredibly beautiful, it is not necessary. Her singing here slides up and down in pitch, and warbles with emotion in that distinctly Scottish way. Each Cocteau Twins album had its own vocal style, but here is the only time we hear her voice unaltered, singular and clean, and for this reason alone this album is worth it for any fan of hers.The album is enjoyable as a whole, although not diverse like "Head Over Heels" or "Treasure" (after that they adopted a more thematic approach to structuring albums). Highlight tracks include the dizzyingly strange "Wax and Wane", the emotionally indescribable "Blind Dumb Deaf" and probably the catchiest track on the album, "But I'm Not".The remastered production is as clear as it is possible to make this kind of music.In conclusion, even if the band did improve exponentially with age (as this reviewer believes they did), Cocteau Twins' debut album "Garlands" is a great album on its own merits, they had yet to find their sound, but this sound has an appeal all its own.

As always, the Cocteau twins knock it out of the park. A band with beautiful voice's creative sound. 4AD. Thanks for bringing so much good music to the world. Never a sound that gets old and boring. I've listened to this band from the time they first came out.

the album is great but buyer beware. Amazon keeps listing this CD as having extra tracks when in reality it does not. Now i have three editions of the same album. All have the original 8 tracks only despite claims otherwise.

Product as described ! Fast shipping. Im so Glad to do business with you. Congrats !!!

A band and record from my twenties!The best record from Cocteau TwinsUnfortunately the seller's offer - OxfordshireEngland - stated a remastered version of the CD with a few extra tracks and the actual CD I received was the original one, without those extra tracks.

Somedays Blood Bitch just says it all for me. Then the devil by smiling waxes and wanes. I knew a few Waynes that I waxed and they were smiling devils,too I must say. I know nothing of France, I swear that on party lines. Grail Overfloweth and so does this review. Dear ones, just get this one for its historical importance. Plus it is a very good debut album, too. They started out rockin' with Garlands and ended with Milk Chocolate and Kisses as about as vanilla as one can get. And isn't it nice? A group in de-evolution. I haven't heard any of the recent Robin Guthrie instrumental cds. He keeps pulling them from the shelves to put out newer versions. Don't know what's up with that. I heard,(probably from a Wayne) that one of his more recent incarnated albums is back on track to being a Cocteau Twins cd. But,it's neither Cocteau nor Twins. Elizabeth Fraser needs to help with some vocals. ps Love the cover art on this. How occult!

This cd was supposed to have an additional 4 songs included and it came with only 8. They are showing it as an import but it is not. Watch out!