COCTEAU TWINS - TREASURE @ 40

 

Released on November 12th, 1984, the third studio album by Cocteau Twins, Treasure, turns 40 years old today. While the album is cherished by the band's fans as one of their finest releases, the band themselves were less confident in its qualities.

The album found the group settling into what would be its stable lineup for the remainder of their career, with vocalist Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bass guitarist Simon Raymonde. 4AD record label executive, Ivo Watts-Russell, originally tried to hire Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce the album, however Eno felt the band did not need him and Guthrie ended up producing.

The album was recorded from August to September 1984 at Palladium Studios in Edinburgh and at Rooster in West London. Raymonde alluded to Treasure being rushed and unfinished, while Guthrie referred to it as "an abortion", "our worst album by a mile", and to the period in which it was made as "arty-farty pre-Raphaelite". Additionally, Guthrie noted the record's 'dated' quality "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.'" Nonetheless, as Raymonde observed, "It seems to be the one that people like the best and it's probably sold the best".

So despite the band's reservations, the album has become well established with fans of the group as one of their most revered recordings. It was certainly the album that sold me on the group, though as someone who has produced music for nearly 45 years, I can appreciate when Guthrie says it sounds "dated". It's something that's common with a lot of music from that era, where the brittle quality of the 1st gen digital reverb devices and other electronics can add a harshness to the sound. Still, the quality of the music surmounts most production shortcomings.

INFLUENTIAL ALBUM - COCTEAU TWINS, TREASURE

I can't quite pinpoint when this music came into my life, but it must have been sometime in 1985 when I first became aware of Cocteau Twins, most likely their third full LP, Treasure (1984). For several years in the mid 1980s, Cocteau Twins were THEE go-to band for all your "come-down" needs. After a long night of freakin' & tweakin' on your favorite party favor, when your senses were getting fragile and you needed something soft and dreamy to drift back down to earth, there was really only one choice for that descent back into reality.

Cocteau Twins quickly became the flagship band for the 4AD label and helped to establish its aesthetic of luscious production values and elegant packaging. What the trio of Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie & Simon Raymonde brought together was the opposite of a "power trio". Softness and sweeping beauty were their hallmarks and no other band made me appreciate the potential of a good, spacey reverb like these folks.

Musically, backed by only restrained drum machine, Robin & Simon spun a web of shimmering guitars and soothing bass, a tapestry which seemed to fade off into infinity, gliding and glittering like angel wings. This aesthetic became hugely influential for me and many others as we all pounced on the wave of new digital reverb units which began flooding the music production gear market at the time. BIG echo and endless reverberation were a MUST for the burgeoning "dream pop" aficionados. But as vast and ethereal as this music was, there was a presence floating and flying atop it all which took something wonderful and alchemically transmuted it in to spun gold, the voice of Elizabeth Fraser.

Nothing was a better balm for a sensitive brain during a drug induced dawn than the voice of miss Fraser. Most of the time you didn't know what the fuck she was singing. It often just sounded like gibberish, but what magnificently beautiful gibberish it was! I didn't know at the time, but she, as it turned out, suffers from a great deal of social anxiety and this shyness became a key ingredient in creating her style on record. It was all turned inward, afraid to enunciate the words clearly. Instead, they became a phonetic code language, a symbolism of emotional triggers where the words faded from relevance and it was only the sound of that gorgeous, fragile voice leading you into that inner space of self reflection. It was a friendly, guiding hand as you came to terms with the world resolving back into itself while your head started to clear (and probably ache a bit).

Listening to this music, for me, brings back so many memories of facing a sunrise after a long strange trip and feeling like it's all going to be okay.