Cocteau Twins: the 20 best songs by the masters of dream-pop, according to the Guardian

The Cocteau Twins are the undisputed masters of dream-pop. Robin Guthrie's chiming guitar, Simon Raymonde's “liquid” bass, and their baroque arrangements — archaic, unreal, almost alien in flavour — build a music that's supremely sophisticated and yet splendidly spontaneous, almost naive, on which Elizabeth Fraser's celestial trills rest: a crystalline voice, capable of being childlike and possessed, heretical and angelic all at once. “Dream-pop at its most divine,” is how the British Guardian put it, dedicating a special feature to the band behind “Treasure”, ranking what it considers the 20 best songs released by Fraser and co. Forty years on from the release of the album “Victorialand”, a selection of the British band's 20 best tracks, “from their goth beginnings to their suspended, impalpable masterpieces”.

So here's the ranking of the Cocteau Twins' 20 best tracks, according to The Guardian (full feature here). Below, the accompanying playlist (a serious oversight, in this writer's opinion, the absence of “Blue Bell Knoll”!)

20. Wax and Wane (1982)

19. Half-Gifts (1995)

18. Those Eyes, That Mouth (1986)

17. Know Who You Are at Every Age (1993)

16. Pandora (For Cindy) (1984)

15. Musette and Drums (1983)

14. Sea, Swallow Me (1986)

13. Cico Buff (1988)

12. Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)

11. Rilkean Heart (1996)

10. Bluebeard (1993)

9. Lazy Calm (1986)

8. Pink Orange Red (1985)

7. Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires (1990)

6. Sugar Hiccup (1983)

5. Carolyn's Fingers (1988)

4. Lorelei (1984)

3. Aikea-Guinea (1985)

2. Cherry-Coloured Funk (1990)

1. Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops (1984)

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