Elizabeth Fraser’s favourite song: “So vulnerable”
Press play on any Cocteau Twins song, and you know it’s them – not just because of their distinctive reverb-drenched guitars or their prominent use of a drum machine, but because of Elizabeth Fraser’s otherworldly vocals. The singer truly personifies their dream pop label, her vocals so ethereal that you could only fathom hearing them in the distant echo of a dream.
Fraser joined the band when she was 17, and by the following year, Cocteau Twins had completed perhaps the scariest milestone for a group – putting out their first album. Garlands was released in 1982, following in the sonic lineage of the gothic rock artists of the time like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Yet, the band were anything but derivative; instead, they demonstrated a unique talent for blending dark and mysterious guitars with Fraser’s mesmeric voice, which she often contorted and warped, making herself sound frightened, ghost-like, or simply indecipherable.
Cocteau Twins cemented themselves as one of the most influential alternative bands of the ‘80s and the early ‘90s with albums like Victorialand and Heaven or Las Vegas. Yet, Fraser, unbelievably, had never considered herself a singer before Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie asked her to join their band. However, as soon as she said ‘yes’, her life changed forever. The singer’s ability to inhabit every song, completely giving herself over to it with whatever was required – whether that be operatic dramatism, animalistic wailing or tender melodies – made the Cocteau Twins unforgettable.
For Fraser, singing became something very personal. She often sang abstract words and sounds, creating meaning and emotion out of whatever noises she could conjure up. If she wasn’t doing that, she was gleaning words from foreign-language books, feeling more at ease singing words she didn’t understand that she could instead assign her own meaning to. She reached deep into the recesses of her soul and scooped out pure emotion.
There’s definitely a sense of vulnerability present within many of her performances, a quality that Fraser deeply admires and has always been inspired by. In 1993, she told Melody Maker about her adoration for Nina Simone, whose “vulnerable” nature has always compelled her. “I’ve learnt so much about her through her material,” Fraser explained. “She’s so vulnerable. And I can really relate to that. A lot of her songs are about being fallible. She’s a really dysfunctional person. And dysfunctional people are attracted to each other. I guess that’s why I am attracted to her. We both had a rough life. She’s familiar”.
It’s no surprise, then, that Fraser selected one of Simone’s songs as her all-time favourite – ‘Wild Is The Wind’. Taken from her album of the same name, the track was not an original composition of Simone’s – it was penned by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington – but her’s is one of the most famous renditions. Originally recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1957, Simone’s version emerged in 1966, and it’s just beautiful. Full of emotion and quiet power, Simone’s voice moves smoothly across the song with such an effortless sensibility that it makes you wonder how one person can be gifted with such an astounding voice.
Fraser added, “Especially the live version; this live version I’ve got is just fucking, I don’t know, I just haven’t got the vocabulary. I mostly listen to Nina Simone when I am feeling really raw. The more raw I feel, the more I relate to her.” While Simone sang with a lot more coherence than Fraser most of the time, it’s clear that the Cocteau Twins singer was inspired by the way Simone was able to exert her voice and fill it with so much passion.
