For the first time in a while, there’s actual news about the Cocteau Twins, the Scottish duo that pioneered both dream pop and the practice of putting complete gibberish into lyrics to make songs sound infinitely cooler. (Fun fact! Band member Elizabeth Fraser also lent her ethereal vocals to a lot of the haunting, Elvish songs from the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack.)
No, the Scottish group isn’t reuniting after all these years, but they are remastering and reissuing The Moon And The Melodies, the band’s atmospheric collaboration with the late minimalist composer, Harold Budd. The album hasn’t been available on vinyl since its original release in 1986. The remaster was done by guitarist Robin Guthrie himself, from the band’s original tapes, and will be available on August 23.
Originally credited under each artist’s individual names—Simon Raymonde, Fraser, and Guthrie—The Moon And The Melodies is now generally thought of as a proper Cocteau Twins LP. (You can find it under the band’s page on most streaming services.) Containing both soaring vocal tracks like “Sea, Swallow Me” and “She Will Destroy You,” and lush instrumentals “Memory Gongs” and “Why Do You Love Me?,” the album is an essential part of the Cocteau Twins’ discography—and a great next listen for anyone looking to move past the obviously iconic but occasionally overplayed Heaven Or Las Vegas (1990).
If you really want to impress in Brooklyn or at your local indie gig, the band is also opening up an official merch store for the first time since 1997. But that still isn’t the end of today’s news for Twins-heads. To celebrate the release, the band is additionally launching an official YouTube channel, on which they’ll be sharing hi-res tape transfers of all their official music videos, including some that have never been posted before.
So does all this news mean the band is getting back together? Almost definitely not, according to Raymonde. Still, fans can tide themselves over until TMATM’s August release by revisiting Four-Calendar Café (1993) or Milk & Kisses (1996), both of which the band also reissued this past January.