Cocteau Twins - Four-Calendar Café (2024 Remaster) (2024) [Hi-Res]

Four-Calendar Café may be the most vexing album in the Cocteau Twins' discography. Following the success of Heaven or Las Vegas, it's not surprising that the group continued to explore sounds that were accessibly structured, melody-forward, and, even occasionally, lyrically transparent. Instead of leaning into Heaven's note-perfect combination of beautiful bombast and cosmic catchiness, the Twins made a record that was reliant on gentle, midtempo acoustic compositions that have a quiet, somewhat unfinished feel, which gets amplified by the somewhat sluggish sequence. The first two tracks—"Know Who You Are at Every Age" and "Evangeline"—are certainly up to the group's standard for beauty, but they're also notably low-key. It's not until the chiming, open chords of "Bluebeard" ring out that any sort of life appears to have been breathed into the proceedings.

The emphasis on clear-eyed melodies and lyrics reveals the limitations of the group's compositional skills. When the focus was on crafting rich, dynamic soundscapes—rather than hooks—their innovative strengths were clear. This is not to say that Four-Calendar Café is a bad album, it's just not the one expected from a band known for their use of effects-laden guitars and dreamy synth textures. By embracing more stripped-down instrumentation, with acoustic guitars taking a prominent role, Cocteau Twins created a warm and intimate atmosphere that is somewhat at odds with the interpersonal tensions within the group at the time. (The romantic relationship between vocalist Liz Frazier and guitarist Robin Guthrie had ended, despite the recent birth of their child Lucy Belle, and Guthrie had ended a stint in rehab just prior to the recording of the album.) It all combines for a tentative and somewhat reserved approach to the "Cocteau Twins sound" that is in marked contrast to both the material on Heaven or Las Vegas as well as Café's follow-up album, Milk & Kisses.

Still, plenty of the band's trademark sound shines through. The most wide-open, poppiest moment is "Squeeze-Wax"—a gleeful homage to Lucy Belle—while "Pur" keeps with the tradition of exquisite album-closers and is as bombastic and beautiful as its predecessors. Beyond those and the more pop-oriented tracks released as singles ("Bluebeard," "Evangeline"), the most impressive cut is "My Truth," which combines Garlands-like spareness with space-y beauty. Built upon a simple campfire sing-along structure, it's probably one of the best songs in the Cocteau Twins catalog, merging nearly every stylistic detour the band had ever taken into one miraculously effective composition. © Jason Ferguson