Garlands, Cocteau Twins (4/10)

PJ Harvey got me in a dream pop mood, so I decided to listen to "Garlands," Cocteau Twins' debut album which came out 40 years ago (1982). "Heaven or Las Vegas" is the only Cocteau Twins' album I'd listened to in entirety before this, but that album is (obviously a classic and) one of my favorites and I just love Elizabeth Fraser's voice, so I was excited to dive more into the band. As their debut, this is a really interesting album. It's a lot darker and more discordant/noisy than "Heaven or Las Vegas" which is pretty far on the pop side of dream pop. I think that's super cool, but I also like it less to listen to lol. I appreciated this album a lot, especially the ways that it enabled me to see how Cocteau Twins changed over time, but it's definitely not my favorite to listen to lol. But yeah, I'd say if you're into Cocteau Twins as a band or grungey noise music, this is an interesting listen, but if you're not into either, I would skip. Favorite tracks: Blood Bitch (side note: did Jenny Hval get the name of her album from this song? Ok I looked it up; Jenny Hval loves Cocteau Twins but it was not in reference)