Cocteau Twins - Treasure (4AD)

Chronic Town-era M. Stipe, Starsailor's Captain Buckley, Gollum Yorke, they've got no ululation on E. Fraser.

Souxsie Sioux sprechstimme, scat and Lillywhite echo winding through tear- and tea-stained doilies hung out to dry. Cherubs mumble, of course, bad poetry and all. Choirs can't fill the void vacated by sense. And harps are only muted by the heavenly hash of the clouds. So these fantasies -- not wholly aurual -- spin themselves out of Aegean taffy, pumice, Joseph Mallord William Turner landscapes (rather than Wyndham Lewis vortices), and the heavy floral perfumes favored by women who become little girls all over again, demurring as they do to the swathe and billow of their taupe, shapeless frillery. For all its synthesized sparkle, this pop is more Victorian than The Kinks at their most gazing-back-over-the-garden-wall.

Ciò è tutto il così mess bello, risposte, parole che non erano mai. Cela est tout l'ainsi mess beau, réponses, mots que pas erano jamais. Aquilo é todo l'ainsi mess bonito, respostas, palavras que não erano nunca. Αυτό είναι όλο l'ainsi όμορφο δεν βρωμίζει, απαντήσεις, λέξεις εκείνο το όχι erano ποτέ.

The twins jumped the wall on the back of a hiccup.

~ Joe Milazzo