The Cocteau Twins: Victorialand (1986)-Michael Tenzer
The Cocteau Twins: Victorialand (1986)
By Michael Tenzer
The follow up to the beautiful and strange masterpiece Treasure, Victorialand by the Cocteau Twins takes a more serene and simple approach then the former. The restrained tone of Victorialand is set with the first ambient swirls of “Lazy Calm” - a gentle meditation that builds and builds. Synthesizer notes hang thickly in the air as a swarthy, layered guitar flows freely through it. A calming saxophone joins in thereafter, acting as the foghorn to usher in a deep, cavernous bass drum and a cacophony of enveloping guitar chimes.
Aside from “Lazy Calm”, percussion is absent on Victorialand. This lack of defined rhythm lets Robin Guthrie’s lead guitar flourishes take center stage and wander along within ambient landscapes, coalescing like water against water.
The Cocteau Twins wouldn’t be nearly what they are without the haunting and unabashed voice of Elizabeth Fraser. Although her lyrics are indecipherable, her singing acts as a fluid sonic texture where the words do not have to be understood to be enjoyed. Fraser’s inflections evoke that of an orgasmic, ethereal opera, especially on songs like “Fluffy Tufts” and “Little Spacey,” where her voice ascends and descends with such delicate splendor that it pushes the music to towering gossamer heights.
The elements from prior Cocteau Twin’s albums that are absent on Victorialand, namely Simon Raymonde’s fleshed out bass and loud, pervasive drum machine patterns, might have been cumbersome in this setting, as the emphasis of the album is ambience and intimacy. A song like “Through the Dark Months of April and May” has such a fragile build that any kind of augmentation past Guthrie’s flanging string plucks and Fraser’s yielding vocals might have brought the whole thing crashing down.
Victorialand is as gentle as it is enthralling. There is no sacrifice of atmosphere for succinctness, or vice versa. The album is an aural cocoon filled to the brim with saccharine lullabies. Victorialand holds it’s own against the Cocteau’s masterwork, Treasure, in the best way possible.Without even trying to.
Copyright C. 2008 Michael Tenzer