Year by Year: Cocteau Twins – 1991

1990 had by far been an intense yet successful year for the band – following the release of the ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ album, the final few months of 1990 (October through December) had seen the band tour Europe, North America and Canada, which then continued on into 1991, with the North and South American tour to promote the ‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ album that kept the band occupied during March and April of 1991. Along the way, the band also parted ways with 4AD records following some degree of acrimony, a move that would be reflected upon at a later date as not necessarily the best of moves. Simon Raymonde’s ‘In One Ear’ book also provides a bleakly dramatic tale of the human toll of the tour to support promotion of ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ by way of a rather dramatic end to the tour on a personal level. By this point in time the band were now finding that their relationship with their label, 4AD, was being brought to a close. So, its perhaps little surprise to find that 1991 was otherwise a low-activity period other than the intense touring schedule.

Yet, it was not a quiet year for releases, with a box set of their singles and EPs (in enhanced form with complementary bonus tracks added as appropriate) proving to be a very welcome release on CD format.

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(1991) ‘Singles Collection’ CD Box Set (4AD, CT BOX 1)

Released in the UK/EU, USA/Canada and Japan* in slightly differing packaging formats (the UK/EU in slimline CD single cases, the US/Canada editions in full size CD jewel cases), this box set compiled CD format facsimiles of the band’s single and EP releases up to and including 1990 as well as adding an additional disc that collected up a few additional waifs and strays for good measure. In the UK at least, as well as being part of the ‘Singles Collection’ CD Box Set, individual discs were also made available as stand-alone releases, for those of a more selective or price-conscious nature.

Either way, these provided a very welcome opportunity to finally have these single and EP tracks available on CD for the first time. (* Unlike the other territories, the Japanese release comes with an additional, exclusive 28-page booklet. The discs come in the same slimline CD single cases as the UK, but the box itself is quite different in its card construction, and is not the sturdy fabric-finished affair as found elsewhere.)

The discs included largely followed the original track-listings and versions but there were a few where an additional track was added – for example, in the case of the ‘Peppermint Pig’ and ‘Pearlydewdrops’ Drops’ singles, thee included both the 7″ and extended 12″ mixes of the A side / title track, while ‘Love’s Easy Tears’ added ‘Orange Appled’ to the UK/EU edition (though this had always been part of the US EP release). Other anomalies to be aware of include the fact that the mix of ‘Aikea-Guinea’ is the original single mix – unlike the ‘alternative’ mix that is to be found on the later ‘Lullabies to Violaine’ singles collection.

I tend not to get too much into the pros and cons of the sonics of the various different versions of releases that are out there, but there does seem to be a pretty solid consensus that the mastering of the box set releases are far more faithful to the original releases than the later mastering of the same tracks that are to be found on the much later ‘Lullabies to Violaine’ compilation, which has often been noted as being prone to the ‘loudness wars’ issues of the time.

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Tracklists:

Lullabies

1. Feathers-Oar-Blades [4:32]
2. Alas Dies Laughing [3:40]
3. It’s All But An Ark Lark [8:06]

Peppermint Pig

1. Peppermint Pig (7″ Version) [3:24]
2. Laugh Lines [3:20]
3. Hazel [2:49]
4. Peppermint Pig (12″ Version) [5:02]

Sunburst and Snowblind

1. Sugar Hiccup (Single Remix) [3:41]
2. From The Flagstones [3:39]
3. Hitherto [3:56]
4. Because Of Whirl-Jack [3:29

The Spangle Maker

1. The Spangle Maker [4:42]
2. Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops (12″ Version) [5:14]
3. Pepper-Tree [3:47]
4. Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops (7″ Version) [4:11]

Aikea-Guinea

1. Aikea-Guinea [3:57]
2. Kookaburra [3:20]
3. Quisquose [4:10]
4. Rococo [3:08]

Tiny Dynamine

1. Pink Orange Red [4:41]
2. Ribbed And Veined [4:00]
3. Plain Tiger [4:01]
4. Sultitan Itan [3:53]

Echoes In A Shallow Bay

1. Great Spangled Fritillary [4:02]
2. Melonella [4:05]
3. Pale Clouded White [4:59]
4. Eggs And Their Shells [3:06]

Love’s Easy Tears

1. Love’s Easy Tears [3:37]
2. Those Eyes, That Mouth [3:38]
3. Sigh’s Smell Of Farewell [3:33]
4. Orange Appled [2:49]

Iceblink Luck

1. Iceblink Luck [3:20]
2. Mizake The Mizan [3:03]
3. Watchlar [3:17]

(Disc 10)

1. Dials [2:39]
2. Crushed [3:17]
3. The High Monkey-Monk [3:07]
4. Oomingmak (Instrumental) [2:43]

Disc 10 has no official title, it seems. The tracks are a few waifs and strays. ‘Dials’ was originally released on the US promo-only single of ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’. ‘Crushed’ was originally released in 1987 on the 4AD artists compilation ‘Lonely Is An Eyesore’. ‘The High Monkey-Monk’ was originally released on the 1990 various artists compilation released by Melody Maker magazine, ‘Gigantic! 2’, and finally, the instrumental version of the ‘Victorialand’ track ‘Oomingmak’ was originally used over the end titles of the video cassette version of ‘Lonely Is An Eyesore’,

As you can see from the photos, the CD singles do a very nice job of reformatting the original artwork to the smaller canvas size of the CD single format, while the new CD label designs while of a series, do have the nice detail of making use of the Cocteau Twins logo of the matching period.

It is worth noting that some of the 12″ versions can only be found here, if you are looking for them on CD format – they were not included on later compilations. So, the discs from these releases are the only way – as far as I’m aware – to find the 12″ mixes of ‘Peppermint Pig’ and ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’ other than digital downloads or streaming platforms these days.

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(1991) US Promo-only CD: ‘Cocteau Twins Singles Collection Sampler’ (4AD / Capitol Records, DPRO-79065)

Issued in the US as a promo-only release on LP, CD and cassette formats to support the Singles Collection CD Box Set. The selection of tracks takes in a lot of deep cuts and is certainly not any kind of ‘greatest hits’ compilation, that’s for sure.

Track-list:

1. Aikea-Guinea [3:56]
2. High Monkey Monk [3:07]
3. Sigh’s Smell Of Farewell [3:34]
4. Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops [4:10]
5. Dials [2:39]
6. Hazel [2:49]
7. Quisquose [4:10]
8. Sugar Hiccup [3:39]
9. Orange Appled [2:49]
10. Pink Orange Red [4:38]

Summary

1991 saw the expanded touring version of the band compete the world tour in support of 1990’s ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’, but saw no further new releases from the band other than re-releases. Principally, this was the CD singles collection box set, which was welcome but also marked the departure of the band from 4AD, following the termination of their existing contract with the label in October 1990. Since this series of posts began, the release of Simon Raymonde’s excellent and quite moving book, ‘In One Ear’ has helped to understand much of the Cocteau Twins history and this period of the band is quite revelatory. Although now without a label, the band still continued with their ever expanding September Sound studio and set sights upon recording another album and finding a new label to release it through, which wasn’t quite as swift an action as might have been expected.