30 days : day 4

I feel like I’ve been listening to Winter Feeling albums for decades. Either music that makes me feel that cold dark gloom, or music that keeps me warm during the frost bit nights, or music that feeds the chill that hides within the shadows in my soul… so I’m going with a kind of first thought / best thought here … and that thought leads me to the Cocteau Twins.

They have a few summer songs, and a few Autumn albums, but the one that pulls me into winter is Treasure.

#30daysofalbums #cocteautwins #treasure

While there are definitely some Wintery songs on Garlands, I lean towards this third Cocteau Twins LP as the album that fills the winter from the coldness of the outside world to the warmth that is built within. The stark snow drifts that blanket the world is caught between the chords, and the warmth you find within the arms of someone you love slides between the rhythms and melodies.

It’s raw and polished at the same time, it’s ethereal and dreamy. It’s cold and spacious and warm and romantic.

This was the first Cocteau Twins album I ever heard, caught in high school around 1985, and was a direct contrast to the Velvet Underground, Flipper, My Dog Popper, Jimi Hendrix mess my head was in at the time, but at the same time – it kind of fit. It lead me closer to the darker sounds which I gravitated to in the years following – the Sisters of Mercy, the Cure, Skinny Puppy … but Cocteau Twins were smooth and soft, that winter warmth.

I have moved past the heaviest of those cold music worlds, for the most part, though I still enjoy delving into the shadows, and I always have time to revisit this treasure…