Cocteau Twins - Head Over Heels
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 24.10.1983
1.65 meters is all you need in this world, especially when you come equipped with an angelic soprano voice and the look of a mesmerizing fairy. Elizabeth Fraser had every reason in the world to focus on music: music is what gave her solace when she left home, after suffering sexual abuse in her childhood.
Fraser was born in August 1963 in Grangemouth, a town of around sixteen thousand people, which she described as a dark, stifling industrial town.
During her teenage years she developed eating disorders and became bulimic, perhaps as a result of the sexual abuse she had suffered. She was later forced to leave her family's home because of her punk look.
At 17 she met the musician and producer Robin Guthrie, who became Fraser's partner.
"We were attracted to each other for all the wrong reasons. I had no ideas or opinions at that time, but Robin had enough ideas for both of us," Fraser told an interviewer.
The two channeled those ideas into the band "Cocteau Twins", whose second album, "Head Over Heels", was released on October 24, 1983.
"Cocteau Twins" was formed in 1979 in Grangemouth, Fraser's hometown, by Guthrie and bassist Will Heggie, and Fraser joined them in 1981. They took their name from a song by the band "Johnny & the Self Abusers", which we all know as "Simple Minds".
In 1982 they released their debut album, "Garlands". "Cocteau Twins" were musically influenced by the bands "The Birthday Party" and "Siouxsie and the Banshees", by the singer Kate Bush and by "The Sex Pistols".
After the debut album Will Heggie left the lineup in 1983, following the first international tour, and was replaced by Simon Raymonde later that year.
On their second album, production was handled by the band and John Fryer, with Robin Guthrie playing guitar, bass, keyboards and drum machine, while over the vague, not to say incomprehensible, lyrics, Elizabeth Fraser reigns with her angelic voice.
Fraser's lyrics in the songs of "Cocteau Twins" range from plain English, through outright gibberish, to abstract mouth music. Fraser uses her voice as another instrument, wrapped in richly layered guitars with a wet, reverberant sound.
"Cocteau Twins", 1983 model, anticipate the shoegaze sound, years before the genre began to gain momentum.
Aside from the vague and/or meaningless lyrics, on "Head Over Heels" "Cocteau Twins" began to shape their musical identity. The album's songs are characterized by airy, operatic vocals combined with Robin Guthrie's effects-laden guitar playing.
On some of the album's songs the Scottish rock duo uses the chorus effect, as on the third and relatively well-known track on the album, "Sugar Hiccup".
Guthrie's multi-layered guitars and heavy reverb at times evoke the depths of winter, when everything around is cold and frozen, which connects us so naturally to the album cover, showing frozen leaves preserved in ice, while the drops of water that fall on them at random are crystallized tears.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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