Last week, I listened to Heaven or Las Vegas, highlighted here previously, and marking my first listen to any CT music for several years and now I find myself listening to more of their music, buying the new 4-CD boxset Treasure Hiding: The Fontana Years (focusing on their last few years) and purchasing the hefty Facing the Other Way, a history of 4AD, the Cocteaus label for most of their career.
Several of the tracks from the stellar Pink Opaque came from the band's second full-length, Head Over Heels released on 4AD, on Halloween 1983. At the point, the group consisted of vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie, who handled guitars, bass and drum programming, developing a fascinating soundscape for Fraser's stunning vocals, with bassist Will Heggie leaving the band earlier in the year and Simon Raymonde not joining until several months later.
While the debut album, 1982's Garlands was often written-off as a derivative of Siouxsie and the Banshees and a couple of EPs were issued that marked slight changes in sound, Head Over Heels retained some of guitar textures from the debut, but greatly expanded the sonic landscape, while Fraser moved more into a wider palette of vocalizing that was further developed by 1984's Treasure. The diversity involved making her voice more of a focal point, while Guthrie introduced some acoustic guitar and, on one track, a saxophone, to flesh out the instrumentals.
For many, Treasure and the EPs that came before and after crystallized a classic Cocteaus sound, but Head Over Heels was a giant leap forward from Garlands and tracks like "Sugar Hiccup," "Five Ten Fiftyfold," "The Tinderbox (Of a Heart)," and "Musette and Drums" set the stage for further developments for the group, espcially when Raymonde brought his bass and ideas to complement what Guthrie and Fraser were doing.
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