Treasure

back in stock. with their third album, ‘treasure’, the cocteau twins settled on what would, from then on, be their primary line up – vocalist elizabeth fraser, guitarist robin guthrie, and bassist simon raymonde. one of the band’s most impressionistic records, it abandons the ‘phrase’ titles of previous records in favour of mythological-sounding one word names, encouraging listeners to make up their own interpretations of the songs. sound-wise, the band’s performance, though not confrontational, is more aggressive, and several tracks, such as ‘persephone,’ find guthrie experimenting with a harsher guitar sound. standouts include the two opening tracks, ‘ivo’ and ‘lorelei,’ both of which sound like very sexy baby food commercials, while the epic ‘donimo’ opens with choral-style vocals over sustained musical tones augmented by glittering chimes, exploding halfway through with a pounding drumbeat and guthrie’s crystalline, effects-laden guitar. despite the fact that guthrie has stated in interviews that he is largely unhappy with the album, it remains a favourite among the band’s fans and it is almost certainly their most consistently upbeat record.