new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

Formed in Scotland in 1980, the trio, led by Liz Fraser's bizarre sing-song vocal acrobatics in front of Robin Guthrie's dense guitar and keyboard programming, spent almost two decades as indie darlings of the college crowds in the UK and America, but never found widespread commercial success. Their first LP, Garlands, featured a harsher and more biting sound than the ethereal, dreamlike programming they would cultivate a few years down the line. On the other hand, the seeds of unusual lyrics and a strong design sense -- they were, indeed, the visual definition of the 4AD label -- is very much evident on Garlands, even if it doesn't fit as well into the rest of their catalog.

More so than most of their peers, the Cocteau Twins released about half of their music in the 1980s on 12-inch EPs. In fact, in their first eight years, they did not pull any singles from the albums, choosing instead to keep the "single" (or EP) and the "album" absolutely separate. For example, "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops," their fourth single and first success on the singles charts, was not found on any album. Listeners were entranced by Fraser's vocal style, a gauzy, enigmatic, operatic trill which masked the lyrics through often incomprehensible stylistics.

The singles/albums convention was dropped by the time of their first American chart entry, 1990's Heaven or Las Vegas, from which the minor hit "Iceblink Luck" was pulled. "Luck" was an MTV staple, and the band did all the rounds of US college radio and 120 Minutes, but elected to take time off after their first US tour.

Four-Calendar Cafe followed in 1993, by which time Fraser had elected to alter her vocal style and enunciate more clearly. As she and Guthrie were ending their relationship at the time of recording, the lyrics became more pointed and direct, and the album was their biggest American success. A few more EPs, and finally the 1996 album Milk & Kisses, rounded out their career and the band formally split in 1997.