Cocteau Twins are goth AF. Sure, they’re ethereal, maybe aliens, maybe supernatural visitors from the beyond that sometimes cover “Frosty the Snowman” and sometimes release an entire album without drums just to see if you’re still willing to follow them into that abyss. But they’re still goth AF.
Or at least they were for much of their career, right on up to Elizabeth Fraser’s collaborations with Massive Attack on Mezzanine. (I haven’t written about this yet? huh…) There’s a clear arc of gothness that peaked in the early ’80s and then slopes downward, their least-goth moment being 1996’s Milk & Kisses, I’d say, but even through the early ’90s there was a lingering shadow. I played “Pitch the Baby” at my old DJ night and people were into it, so that’s something. (And can we talk about how Treasure is, for all its beauty, basically a whole-ass David Lynch nightmare? I mean, I guess not because I already wrote about that album, but feel free to carry this on with me on social media if you’re feeling it.)
Their most goth moment? It’s a tie with Head Over Heels (still don’t have on vinyl at the time of this writing, regrettably, even though it’s a damn masterpiece—I assure you it’s on my Discogs wishlist), but my vote has to go to Garlands. It’s their most sinister, noisiest, most aggressive even. It begins with a song called “Blood Bitch,” for one (borrowed by Jenny Hval later on, which was enough for Pitchfork to put it on their History of Goth feature—but reference aside, I’m not sure that’s quite the right fit…). And “Wax and Wane” (later covered by Deftones!) is as close to Siouxsie and the Banshees as the Cocteau Twins ever got. My personal favorite might be the title track, with its serpentine bassline and shoegazey squalls of guitar. Pretty intense, to be honest.
For a long time, I had no idea that Fraser and Guthrie were even capable of something this nasty sounding, but when I discovered it, everything kind of all fell into place. Of course they could make a post-punk/darkwave record this evil sounding. They were capable of two extremes, but frequently got credit for just the one.
However, I remember visiting some friends in New York (possibly in a bar while it was snowing, possibly with some mediocre pizza—I know right?) and Cocteau Twins came up. My friend Steve, off the cuff, says, “You know what album I love? Garlands.” For a short while I thought I was the only one. But hey, sometimes goth brings people together.
Rating: 9.4
Sound Quality: Great
1000 Times Jeff 
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