Cocteau Twins – Four-Calendar Café (CD)
There was clearly every reason why 1993’s Four-Calendar Café could/should have been a disappointment at best, a disaster at worst for the Cocteau Twins - first major-label album, follow-up to a masterpiece, band barely on speaking terms, add cocaine, await calamity.
But against these considerable odds, Four-Calendar Café is a marvel. For all the upheaval attending its creation, it sounds a pretty natural successor to Heaven Or Las Vegas, the Cocteaus apparently continuing to realise that they could stay just as pretty while becoming less opaque.
It’s riddled with tunes that nobody would have difficulty whistling, conveying Elizabeth Fraser’s most audible and least mistakable lyrics to date. On the gorgeous trundle of “Bluebeard”, which sounds about as close as the Cocteaus were ever likely to get to a country song, Fraser is perceptibly casting an eye sideways towards Guthrie as she trills “Are you the right man for me?/Are you safe, are you my friend?”. (Mojo).
Tracklist:
Know Who You Are At Every Age 3:38
Evangeline 4:29
Bluebeard 3:54
Theft, And Wandering Around Lost 4:30
Oil Of Angels 4:37
Squeeze-Wax 3:48
My Truth 4:32
Essence 3:01
Summerhead 3:37
Pur 5:02
There was clearly every reason why 1993’s Four-Calendar Café could/should have been a disappointment at best, a disaster at worst for the Cocteau Twins - first major-label album, follow-up to a masterpiece, band barely on speaking terms, add cocaine, await calamity.
But against these considerable odds, Four-Calendar Café is a marvel. For all the upheaval attending its creation, it sounds a pretty natural successor to Heaven Or Las Vegas, the Cocteaus apparently continuing to realise that they could stay just as pretty while becoming less opaque.
It’s riddled with tunes that nobody would have difficulty whistling, conveying Elizabeth Fraser’s most audible and least mistakable lyrics to date. On the gorgeous trundle of “Bluebeard”, which sounds about as close as the Cocteaus were ever likely to get to a country song, Fraser is perceptibly casting an eye sideways towards Guthrie as she trills “Are you the right man for me?/Are you safe, are you my friend?”. (Mojo).
Tracklist:
Know Who You Are At Every Age 3:38
Evangeline 4:29
Bluebeard 3:54
Theft, And Wandering Around Lost 4:30
Oil Of Angels 4:37
Squeeze-Wax 3:48
My Truth 4:32
Essence 3:01
Summerhead 3:37
Pur 5:02
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