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Has an American band ever sounded so British? Hershey, Pennsylvania’s The Ocean Blue had perfected the type of jangly guitars and pop melody hooks that had adorned the UK indie charts in the 1980s. The opening track ‘Between Something and Nothing’ off their self-titled debut reminds listeners of the best alt pop of The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and the Cocteau Twins. It was 1989; David Schelzel and band were onto something…
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In 2006, Midlake released their brilliant sophomore album, The Trials Of Van Occupanther. Two years before, they had already trailed their pastoral yearnings about the olden days. Less of the 1970s soft rock than Van Occupanther, but with more than a spoonful of 1960s psychedelia, ‘Kingfish Pies’ tells a story of a smalltown common man. The band hail from Denton, Texas, but got their break when associate and former Lift to Experience drummer Andy Young sent it to Simon Raymonde (ex Cocteau Twin). He offered to master the album at Abbey Road Studios, to which the band agreed. Have a great week.
Looking beyond the pervasive sounds of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ and ‘World In Motion’, 1990 had so much more to offer. For the weekend, I give you my favourite sounds that year, in no particular order…
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Honourable mentions also go to: Enigma for ‘Callas Went Away‘; Happy Mondays for ‘Step On‘; A Tribe Called Quest for ‘Can I Kick It?‘; Faith No More for ‘Falling To Pieces‘; The KLF for ‘Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard‘; Lush for ‘De-Luxe‘; The Charlatans for ‘The Only One I Know‘; LFO for ‘LFO‘ and John Cale & Brian Eno for ‘Spinning Away‘.
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A couple of months back, Wye Oak released ‘It Was Not Natural’ as the lead single off their sixth studio album The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs. The Baltimore duo continue to create their own form of dream pop that neatly recalls the work of Cocteau Twins.
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I bring the Cocteau Twins’ ‘Cherry Coloured Funk’ off Heaven or Las Vegas, the band’s most beloved album. Liz Fraser’s voice draws, swoops and amazes.
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Toronto-based indie pop band Alvvays released their sophomore album Antisocialites this year. The second track is ‘Dreams Tonite’ with its dreamy 1980s pop sound. Think Chromatics. Think Beach House. Think Cocteau Twins.
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1985 was no high watermark in popular music, which makes Felt’s ‘Primitive Painters’ even more remarkable. Featuring on their album Ignite the Seven Cannons, the song is positively spellbound by the vocals of Elizabeth Fraser and the production of her Cocteau Twin, Robin Guthrie.
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‘Song to the Siren’ was written and performed by Timothy Charles Buckley III (father of Jeff Buckley) and first released on his 1970 album Starsailor. However, the song had already become notable for Buckley’s performance as Micky Dolenz’s guest on the final episode of The Monkees in 1968. The song had been written a year earlier 1967 and Buckley was still singing it as a folk song. By 1970 and the Starsailor release, progressive reverb-filled guitars had entered stage left. But the song is probably better known nowadays for Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie’s 1983 cover in collaboration with This Mortal Coil. Take your choice – a great song is a great song.
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The Cocteau Twins were Robin Guthrie, Will Heggie and the signature vocals of Elizabeth Fraser. In 1990, they released the charming ‘Iceblink Luck’. As with Lush’s ‘De-Luxe‘, this was a full year before My Bloody Valentine released the shoegazing manual Loveless. Like Lush, the band was already combining distorted guitars with haunting vocals to great effect. Unlike The Twins, Fraser’s vocals were almost intelligible.
Samuelsounds 