Review of the album Cocteau Twins - Garlands (1982)
Cocteau Twins get all their praise for Heaven or Las Vegas most of the time, while this debut album, Garlands, remains unnoticed and even ignored. The time when it came out, UK critics described CT as "another Siouxsie copy band". Fun fact, Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) was/is a big fan of Siouxsie.
But this comparison is inappropriate. Cocteau Twins' debut is a heavy drum-machine, combined with noisy guitars, the real wall of sound even before the term shoegaze was even invented. The album's key ingredients are darkness, repetitiveness and, of course, the instrumental arrangements, and not only the roaring guitars of Robin Guthrie, but also Elizabeth Fraser's ethereal voice. Her haunting and ...
