Cocteau Twins – Garlands (sealed UK import)

Garlands is the debut album by the Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. It was released on 10 July 1982 by the record label 4AD. It peaked in the top 5 of the UK Independent Albums Chart  and received support from BBC Radio 1 radio host John Peel.

Garlands is the only album the band recorded with original bassist Will Heggie. Prior to the album the band recorded a four-track session for John Peel in June 1982 including “Wax and Wane” and “Garlands”. A second John Peel session in January 1983 was included as bonus tracks on the cassette and CD release of Garlands. Cindy Sharp of Cindytalk provided backing vocals on “Dear Heart”, “Hearsay Please” and “Hazel”.

Martin C. Strong noted that the album was “hastily recorded” but also featured an “interesting fusion of monochromatic rhythms, textured guitar distortion, and early sampling technology.” The album’s sound was described in The Rough Guide to Rock as “a blend of ominous pulsating bass, stark TR808 drums, cyclical guitar and great screeching arcs of reverberating feedback, over which Liz alternated dry, brittle utterings with full-power vocal gymnastics”.Billboard described the album as “dark post-punk“. The Arts Desk noted that “though they had their own voice, the debut’s debt to Siouxsie and the Banshees was apparent”.

MINT SEALED.