Cocteau Twins have announced reissues of their final two albums — 1993’s Four-Calendar Café and 1996’s Milk & Kisses — which will both be out January 12. Both records were originally released on Capitol Records in the North America and Fontana in the UK, but these reissues are out via 4AD, the label they were signed to for most of their ’80s/’90s run and always felt like their natural home. Guitarist Robin Guthrie went back to his original studio mixes for these reissues for new 24-bit masters of both.
Whether it was the departure from 4AD (some fans were not happy), trying to follow a masterpiece like 1990’s Heaven or Las Vegas, the romantic split of Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser or other factors, these two albums were a bit undervalued at the time, but both have grown better with age. Four-Calendar Café was a natural progression from Heaven or Las Vegas, with Fraser moving even further into intelligible lyrics, Guthrie spinning crystalline guitar webs, and Simon Raymonde tying it all together via masterful bass-playing and other instrumentation. It was apparently a difficult album to make with Guthrie and Fraser splitting up in the middle of it, but it sounds effortless.
Milk & Kisses, meanwhile, finds Guthrie turning up his amps for what is the loudest Cocteaus album since the mid-’80s. It was also a much more civil recording experience than Four-Calendar Café, with all three members in the studio together and working well with each other. The record suffered from a muddy mix at the time, but the sonics have been improved with recent reissues.
Listen to the full albums below.
Read our feature where we talked to Slowdive, Ride and more about Cocteau Twins’ enduring influence.
FOUR CALENDAR CAFE
A1/1 Know Who You Are At Every Age
A2/2 Evangeline
A3/3 Bluebeard
A4/4 Theft, And Wandering Around Lost
A5/5 Oil Of Angels
B1/6 Squeeze-Wax
B2/7 My Truth
B3/8 Essence
B4/9 Summerhead
B5/10 Pur
MILK & KISSES
A1/1 Violaine
A2/2 Serpentskirt
A3/3 Tishbite
A4/4 Half-Gifts
A5/5 Calfskin Smack
B1/6 Rilkean Heart
B2/7 Ups
B3/8 Eperdu
B4/9 Treasure Hiding
B5/10 Seekers Who Are Lovers