The Cocteau Twins album that reduced Elizabeth Fraser to tears: “I just thought it was so lovely”
Some artists exert their emotional impact through their lyrics. Joni Mitchell, for example, littered her songs with her own experiences, turning her feelings about love and freedom into exquisite imagery and metaphors. Bob Dylan found success through his talent with a pen, too, stunning listeners with his poetic takes on protest songs. But for the Cocteau Twins and for singer Elizabeth Fraser, it was quite a different story.
The Scottish shoegaze predecessors made emotionally stirring music, but it wasn’t as a result of their lyricism. In fact, Fraser’s words were usually unintelligible. They would verge on familiar phrases, but as if she was speaking in another language or in reverse. Even when her nonsensical vocals aren’t getting lost amidst Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde’s hazy dream-pop soundscapes, it’s almost impossible to make out what she’s saying.
The feeling concocted by the Cocteau Twins’ soundscapes didn’t necessarily spawn from beautiful lyricism or melancholic metaphors but from the atmosphere and ambience, they created with guitars and wailing vocals. On genre-defining records like Heaven or Las Vegas and Treasure, the trio allowed her soprano vocals to swirl around, echoing strums and the occasional tambourine, forging moving soundscapes entirely through instrumentation.
The stirring nature of their sound has even exerted its impact on Fraser, who once admitted that relistening to Blue Bell Knoll left her in tears. “I listened to [Blue Bell Knoll] for the first time in years and I cried,” she recalled during a conversation with John Grant, as quoted by The Quietus, “I just thought it was so lovely.”
Released in 1988, Blue Bell Knoll preempted the release of the band’s magnum opus, Heaven or Las Vegas, which would push them in a slightly more pop-friendly direction. On Blue Bell Knoll, though, the band were entirely focused on the creation of atmosphere. Each song on the record works in service of its ambience, building upon their dazed dream world with impossibly high vocals and reverberant guitars.
According to Fraser, the record was penned during “quite a difficult time”, so the band took respite in the opportunity to relish in creativity. “Getting immersed in that process and not worrying about how it would be perceived or the outcome,” Fraser recalled, “Just going with the flow without expectations, no endgame, just enjoy it, and if it’s not working try something else.”
Fortunately for Fraser, it did work. Amidst its truly unintelligible lyrics and ethereal instrumentation, Blue Bell Knoll asserted Cocteau Twins as masters of ambience, able to create feelings and emotions without requiring listeners to make sense of a single word. Decades later, the record still exerts this impact on Fraser.
The singer’s Blue Bell Knoll-induced tears may stem from her more personal ties to the record, to memories of difficulties occurring behind-the-scenes and to the creative and lyrical freedom it spawned, but those emotions spill into the music. The ethereal, emotional atmosphere the band forge over ten songs will likely leave many listeners in tears, not just Fraser.
Though Blue Bell Knoll isn’t quite considered in the same regard as its successor, the iconic Heaven or Las Vegas, it is a gorgeous experiment in ambience. Tracks like ‘For Phoebe Still A Baby’ and ‘Carolyn’s Fingers’ encapsulate the Cocteau Twins’ swirling, almost transcendent sound, as well as the perfect sonic harmony between members.
