Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels (New Vinyl)

NEW LP

New sealed copy. 2018 remastered reissue on 180 gram black vinyl.

Head over Heels is the second studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. The album was released on 24 October 1983 through the label 4AD. It featured the band's signature sound of "Guthrie's lush guitars under Fraser's mostly wordless vocals" and is considered an archetype of early ethereal wave music.

Ned Raggett in The Guardian wrote that Fraser's singing was more direct in the mix than it had been on the band's first album, Garlands, and although her lyrics were still often understandable, she "began to shift away from conventional vocabulary towards enigmatic, emotional sound" on Head Over Heels. Writing for The Quietus, journalist Julian Marszalek said that with this album, "Fraser's voice became just as much an instrument" as those played by her musicians", including Guthrie's "multi-layered and heavily reverberated guitars". He also remarked: "'In Our Angelhood' probably fits the bill best and it's a track that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Siouxsie and the Banshees' Kaleidoscope". "The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)" conveys a sense of menace and danger, while the closing track "Musette and Drums" features sweeping guitars and chimes. Cam Lindsay of Exclaim! wrote that "'Multifoiled' has a phlegmatic rockabilly lean to it, 'In Our Angelhood' is both post-punk and proto-shoegaze, and the dizzying 'Sugar Hiccup' could singlehandedly be the conception of dream pop."

TRACKLIST:

A1 When Mama Was Moth
A2 Five Ten Fiftyfold
A3 Sugar Hiccup
A4 In Our Angelhood
A5 Glass Candle Grenades
B1 In The Gold Dust Rush
B2 The Tinderbox (Of A Heart)
B3 Multifoiled
B4 My Love Paramour
B5 Musette And Drums