mmmm.....
yummmy!

yes, I am comparing this album to their other work in saying that it sucks.
Most good bands put out at least one "loser" album, just as many not so good bands put out a really rockin' album. For example, "Everything's Allright Forever" by the Boo Radleys is an awesome album, however their later work is basically just mainstream alterna-pop. Throwing Muses put out 5 awesome albums, followed by "University", which is by no means a bad album, but it is definitely a low point in their career.

That being said,
I feel that there is a simple yet complex intensity to the Twins early work. "Head Over Heels" doesn't sound like anything else from 1983, or anything ever for that matter. by "Treasure" they'd managed to blend the dark, industrial edge with a softer, melodic beauty. The music from this period was truly innovative and original, it really stands out against other eighties music.
My dislike of their later work stems from the loss of their dark cutting edge roots, most noticably on "Blue Bell Knoll"
HOLV seemed like a step in the right direction, and is definitely their most accessible album, but I think they should've just stopped there.
4CC just kind of sounds like elevator music for the most part. If I didn't know better I would hardly believe that the same band wrote such underground classics as "wax and wane" or "hitherto"...
It's not that I think it's bad music, but I'd have to listen to all their other albums untill I got sick of them to put 4CC on, and believe me I've tried.

-_-

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

wax and wayne

I don't know why, but Donimo always reminds me of Christmas. Maybe it's the bells or the chorous. I live on the West coast now and only get a little taste of snow around the holidays when I go visit my folks back east, but Donimo always envokes that feeling of walking down a city street with the snow falling, the lights blinking on the trees and buildings, very few people are around but as the song builds towards the end you approach a celebration in a small park in the center of town.

I also insist on playing "Heaven or Las Vegas" every time I drive to Las Vegas. I start it just as we hit the strip. It's the perfect soundtrack for just a beautiful city with such a seething underbelly.

TMC are a 4 A D creation, fronted by IVO and John Fryer, the founders of the brittish indie label. The idea was to create "forced" collaborations between 4AD artists... that's why Lisa Gerrard sings with Guthrie and Raymond, and why Liz sings a Tim Buckley song and so on.
TMC has included members of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Colourbox, Wolfgang Press, Cindytalk, X-mal Deutschland, the Breeders, and too many others to name. The songs included original compositions as well as covers of songs by the bands on the label, and otherwise. Some fans speculate that participation in TMC was obligitary for artist on the label, a kind of paying dues...
While Raymonde continued to work with Ivo of future TMC projects, the rest of the twins did not. (neither did DCD, or many of the other artists involed with IEIT). Here's a quote from Robin:
<"He [Ivo] was releasing This Mortal Coil records at the same time as ours (Head Over Heels). And he never played down the fact that This Mortal Coil is, in fact, NOT the Cocteau Twins. I mean, so he sold that first album [It'll End In Tears] by advertising the fact that me and Liz did "Song to the Siren," and that me and Liz were the Cocteau Twins at the time [although Simon, too, had joined Robin and Liz by then]. And that caused confusion...So it's left us with all these This Mortal Coil fans who think it's something we did. I don't really like that kind of music!" [Dewdrops #12, 1994]>

More history about TMC here:

cocteautwins.com/html/hist...ory04.html