•
Rating: Like a horoscope, the music of the Cocteau Twins is so vague, eliciting feelings and creating such universal situations, that many are led to think: "This is for me".
However, I am sure that "Victorialand" was just for me, for that Spanish summer full of medieval times, filled with the dark wood of cathedrals, the ancient stones of Roman baths, and the black iron of arabesques on the windows of sunbaked houses. Then the sun burst, we stopped on a beach, and through my half-closed eyelids filtered the light, the warmth, and I surrendered to the innocent happiness of existing.
"Victorialand" is warmth, it is light, it is happiness untouched by the poison of intelligence, by the dark worm of reason. "Victorialand" is a fully ripe fruit, a completely open rose. Robin Guthrie's guitars refuse technical analysis to become immediately the bearers of the messages of the Id and Eros. The effect is immediate and almost otherworldly: the listener ascends straight to the angels of a baroque church. Year after year, single after album, the flavor of the Cocteau Twins had slowly rounded out. The post-punk insistence, the stridency, the feverish visionariness were settling down. That unripe, thorny, and indigestible fruit had distilled honey, was lightening its rusty color, and now unfolded its promise. "Victorialand" is a wonderful fulfillment of the senses. That golden age began with "Aikea Guinea", where the melodies had lost their sharp edges. The gloom, the resentment as against an unjust past had given way to trust in a future. "Tiny Dinamine" and "Echoes in a Shallow Bay" offered to the fingers of my mind the most velvety, most delightful ripples of voice and guitar I had ever heard.
Less flashy than those EPs, more secret, more intimate, "Victorialand" was the creative zenith of Liz Fraser's vocalizations and Robin Guthrie's lush guitars. Liz's voice invented sounds because there is no word that can contain happiness, and Robin's guitars created an environment of soft light for every fairy tale. Truly a magician, Robin, with those effects pedals. After "Victorialand", Liz and Robin would stop, aware they had no other peak to climb. The fruit would rot, the rose would fade. The crisis would make their music deliberate rather than free, the melodies would become sugary rather than sweet. Liz would end up using recognizable words, the words of everyone, the everyday words, for her songs. I understood her better before, when the urgency of desires, the sensuality of existing, the nostalgia of a trifle were the message she captured from space for me, just for me.
The player indicates that this CD lasts thirty-three minutes. It's not true. "Victorialand" lasted an entire enchanted season.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Lazy Calm (06:34)
Nice question marks. If you don't know the lyrics, don't post them. And if it's a Cocteau Twins song, you don't know the lyrics.
04 Whales Tails (03:19)
We haven't lyrics of this song. Please, add these lyrics for other users. Use "Correct". Thanks to you.
05 Oomingmak (02:42)
Soon I see it wasn't even he who was less
I almost let us ...
Feel the sun
early morning millionaire
Gone against the greater good
So here's what I do
If I listen we're nowhere
early morning millionaire
I feel the balance in the solace of the earth
(and I like it... )
I feel the balance in the solace of the earth
(and I like it... )
I feel the balance in the solace of the earth
(and I like it... )
07 Feet-Like Fins (03:26)
We haven't lyrics of this song. Please, add these lyrics for other users. Use "Correct". Thanks to you.
08 How to Bring a Blush to the Snow (03:50)
We haven't lyrics of this song. Please, add these lyrics for other users. Use "Correct". Thanks to you.
09 The Thinner the Air (03:15)
We haven't lyrics of this song. Please, add these lyrics for other users. Use "Correct". Thanks to you.
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By vonhesse
There exists a borderland where souls do not die despite not being alive.
Elizabeth Fraser’s voice, unique in its genre, makes this indefinable sonic mix even more seductive and mysterious.
