 Cocteau Twins Like a winter Sunday afternoon nap with a serious cocaine hangover, Victorialand drifts in and out of consciousness, barely rising above a whispered moan, twisting fitfully on the couch but never getting any real sleep. The most ghostly and elusive album the Cocteau Twins recorded, this one from 1986 is hardest to peg, always slipping through your fingers as you try to grab it. It's like a haunting and enigmatic message from your dead older sister who killed herself after a bad breakup with her troubled art-school boyfriend. You know it means well, but can't decipher its many warnings about the future. "Lazy Calm," "Little Spacey," "How to Bring a Blush to the Snow," "The Thinner the Air" … the titles evoke the album's sound pretty well. There's almost no percussion, just a lot of guitar, voice, and echo … it's like the darkworld Music For Zen Meditation. Perhaps Music For Childhood Suppressed Memory Regression Hypnosis Therapy and Other Joys would be a more appropriate title. As with everything the band recorded, if you like the Cocteau sound, you will need Victorialand along with all the others. It's a shimmery come-down from the beautiful madness of Treasure, like a few smooth beers after a night of cocaine frenzy (can you tell I'm craving cocaine?). But it's probably the least consequential of any of their releases. Even so, inconsequential Cocteau Twins is more delicious than the best of pretty much any other band.
Review by Royroy Pye |