Moonlit Melodrama

 

Harold Budd ▪ Elizabeth Fraser ▪ Robin Guthrie ▪ Simon Raymonde ‎- The Moon And The Melodies [CAD 611 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC]

It's time to immerse yourself in an album which wraps itself around you like an ethereal fluffy duvet. Never credited to just The Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - each artist is named in their own right, however to cut to the chase, The Moon And The Melodies is The Cocteau Twins accompanied by one of our times greatest composers, plus of course Richard Thomas from Dif Juz who gets a small credit for his sax and drums. 

The results are of course more ambient than anything previously from the Grangemouth band, but there are numerous reference points to older Cocteau Twins work throughout. Four of the tracks do fit within the basic Cocteau formula - The Moon And The Melodies was recorded during their most prolific period.

Should you seek further recommendations, the beautiful The Ghost Has No Home is one of the most soothing compositions ever pressed onto vinyl or Ooze Out And Away, Onehow which subdues the senses with the sweetest of Fraser vocal segments before erupting from the speakers. I'll make one small criticism and that is that I think the production needs a little more space and air but that's just a personal preference. I've compared my rip to my original 4AD compact disc version (one for you 'Hoffmanites' to consider) and I think the vinyl sounds better. The record has remarkably never been repressed. 

Whoever made this record happen deserves a medal, it represents such a complex blend of styles, who had the vision that this collaboration would work, perhaps it was Ivo, or maybe Guthrie himself as he went on to record many more albums with Harold Budd, right up until the American's sad passing in late 2020.

A1 Sea, Swallow Me

A2 Memory Gongs

A3 Why Do You Love Me?

A4 Eyes Are Mosaics

B1 She Will Destroy You

B2 The Ghost Has No Home

B3 Bloody And Blunt

B4 Ooze Out And Away, Onehow