| This retrospective is not quite career spanning--after parting company with 4AD in 1990, the Cocteau Twins recorded two more albums for Fontana before calling it a day. However, not only did they record the overwhelming majority of their best work for 4AD, they enjoyed a relationship with the label whose symbiotic closeness has had few parallels: opaque and mysterious on record, funny and fond of a drink off it, the Cocteau Twins were always the definitive 4AD act. This typically beautifully packaged collection is a judicious selection of the Cocteaus' oft-imitated, never-bettered canon, with one elusive b-side ("Watchlar") nailed on at the end as bait for completists. The 18 tracks of Liz Fraser's ethereal whooping against Guthrie and Raymonde's crystalline musical backdrops collected on Stars And Topsoil are possessed of a spirit, sense of adventure and awesome, adjective-defying beauty rarely equalled before or since. Anyone who has heard the Cocteaus will know this already, and anyone who hasn't should start here, and now. --Andrew Mueller |
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