Glossolalia: the bizarre language of the Cocteau Twins
Even the biggest Cocteau Twins fan would draw a blank when asked to choose their favourite lyric from the band. That’s because most of the Scottish dream pop outfit’s songs are comprised of lyrical gibberish, with lead vocalist Elizabeth Fraser prioritising the sound of her voice over the meaning of her words, using it as her own instrument.
The band emerged in 1979, releasing their debut album, Garlands, in 1982. While their early work took inspiration from the dominant gothic and post-punk genre popular at the time, Cocteau Twins soon incorporated more ambient and ethereal sounds into their music. By doing so, they became one of the first dream pop bands, utilising floating rhythms, cascading, shimmery guitars and angelic vocals courtesy of Fraser.
Yet Frasers’ vocals have often left fans dumbfounded, with the band becoming known for their nonsensical lyrics. While there are certainly songs that have intelligible lyrics, many are purposefully abstract, with Fraser emphasising the rise and fall of her voice, delicate melodies, or perhaps more potent moments of wild abandon, best displayed on 1984’s ‘Persephone’, for example.
Fraser has opened up about her lyrics in several interviews over the years, giving fans an insight into her purposefully secretive way of singing. Her vocal delivery has often been referred to as ‘glossolalia’, a term that essentially refers to speaking in tongues. Glossolalia involves producing sounds that resemble speech rather than using actual words. The term is heavily associated with religion, but in the 20th century, glossolalia was often used by Modernist writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, as well as writers of ‘literary nonsense’ such as Lewis Carroll in the 1800s.
Discussing her approach to writing, Fraser told 1FM Radio in 1994, “The lyrics are words that I’ve found by going through books and dictionaries written in languages I don’t understand. The words don’t have any meaning at all until I sing them. I did it so I could sing something.”
She added: “I get a bug for words. But I don’t know what any of them mean. I just pull them out of foreign languages books and stuff like that. The music and the singing and the words created a feeling, and I had a freedom doing this that I didn’t have singing English. I just didn’t have the courage to sing in English.”
Fraser also stated that she “didn’t feel adequate as a lyricist” and used glossolalia as “a coping skill.” She continued, “I don’t wanna know what they mean because it’s gonna be ridiculous. I might be singing about plum pudding or god-knows-what-else, you know? But it served a purpose. I really got a freedom from it. And it worked. It did work for me.”
While Fraser eventually began singing more logical lyrics as the years progressed and she discovered a greater sense of confidence within herself, some of the band’s most beautiful songs remain lyrically unintelligible.
