Track Listing

1. Blue bell knoll
2. Athol brose
3. Carolyn's fingers
4. For Phoebe still a baby
5. Itchy Glowbo
6. Cico buff
7. Suckling The Mender
8. Spooning good singing gum
9. Kissed out red floatboat
10. Ella megalast burls forever

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4072 in Music
• Released on: 2004-04-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
After the airiness of VICTORIALAND, BLUE BELL KNOLL, the Cocteau Twins' fifth album, returns them to the swirling ethereality of earlier collections. Anchoring the interplay of Elizabeth Fraser's vocals and Robin Guthrie's effects-treated guitars with drum machine patterns and stronger bass lines makes for somewhat more traditional songs, and also frees them--"Suckling the Mender" even has room for two glittering guitar solos.
Standout tracks include "Carolyn's Fingers", featuring Elizabeth Fraser's voice pining and sweeping over a shuffling beat, the slow-paced "For Phoebe Still a Baby", dedicated to Fraser's unborn child, that adds a xylophone inthe mix, and "Spooning Good Singing Gum", bedecked with Guthrie's echoing, multi-tracked guitars. As good as these cutsare, however, the best of the bunch are the album's last two tracks, "A Kissed Out Red Floatboat", and "Ella Megalast Burls Forever". Alone, either would justify the price of admission, but together they make this, out of many great Cocteau Twins albums, one of the best.

Customer Reviews

Almost at their best here
This was the Cocteau Twins nearing their creative peak. The compositions were tight and beautifully arranged. All the syrupy gloopiness which soaked through previous productions, bogging down the sound was absent, leaving the sound here clean and sharp. All the instruments are distinctive and sit well to the fore in the mix. Elizabeth Fraser is as usual a voice like no other. The album starts sprightly enough with the title track, opening with a percussive harpsichord type synth sound leading into a haunting vocal from Fraser. The whole thing takes off after about two minutes when the drums enter the proceedings to carry the whole thing off to a satisfying conclusion. “Carolyn’s Fingers” is the most commercial song on the album, very infectious and strident. My personal favourite is the final track, “Ella Megalast Burls Forever”. This is heavenly perfection. The guitars and vocals in perfect balance throughout. The last section is even better, the layered vocals taking off into some other world. Bliss! The sound on this remaster is cleaner and fuller than on the original CD, but apart from a slightly different front cover, nothing extra is added. The next album would be their last for 4AD and their best, but “Blue Bell Knoll” contains plenty of gems.

A treat for your ears
I've been a fan since 1983 when it all began with the band and this album is my favourite. If we look at their albums as stages on a journey then this album marked a turning point on their journey. Technically brilliant, it has lost the softness of Treasure and smoothed out the punkiness of Head Over Heels and Garlands (all albums after Garlands are less edgy, they were young and inexperienced and Garlands reflects this). The opening track is my favourite all time track because the second it starts it has you ensnared and Liz Fraser's voice soars on this track and the vocal brilliance is maintained throughout the whole album, culminating in 'Ella Megalast Burls Forever', a closing track so exquisite that the silence after it feels like sad emptiness. Apparently, the lyrics (I use the word loosely) on BBK were 'cut and paste', basically lyrical phrases used in a cyclical way, that's why not many of the songs have recognisable verse/chorus/verse formats. All of the CT's albums have stood the test of time, this one in particular. I listen to the title track now and am still as filled with awe as I was in 1989. Not many bands can carry that off! A real treat for your ears.

Another Cocteaus album to Teasure
;Someone once said to me that their favourite Cocteau Twins song was always the one they were listening to at the time which is pretty succinct and effective way of surmising how special this band are /were. Released in 1988 and coming after the sometimes airily wonderful collaboration with Harold Budd "The Moon and the Melodies" Blue Bell Knoll saw the band revert to their classic line up of Robin Guthrie (guitars and general grumpiness) Elizabeth Fraser( mercurial vocal gorgeousness) and Simon Raymonde ( bass and spectacular spiky haircut) though there is a feel of some programming having gone into this album (just listen to the skittish backing rhythms on the title track or "A Kissed Out Red Floatboat" )but there are also
marimba, xylophone, harpsichord, and various elemental percussive sounds. It helps create an even denser tapestry of sound than ever before and although Guthrie with typical curmudgeonly tones has said this was to cover up the lack of true song writing on the album the results rather speak for themselves .
Not that you can tell much from the lyrics .Liz Frazer as usual sings like a possessed angel and has stated that the lyrics were simply a portmanteaux of made-up and borrowed words sung with poor diction and bad grammar and that they were a mask for her true feelings. Christ alone knows what she would sound like if she was truly in touch with the words issuing forth from her mouth for she is inspired on Blue Bell Knoll.
Listen then to her extraordinary vocals on "Carolyn's Fingers" where her almost supernatural ability to skip over her unbelievable vocal range is matched by a lovely. pirouetting riff. "A Kissed Out Red Floatboat" is one of my favourite Cocteau songs ever a genuinely gorgeous effusion of regal melody with a dip in Fraser's vocals-around 50 seconds in- that renders it almost heart breaking .
Really though with the exception of the wonderful Treasure this is the most consistent Cocteau Twins album. . From the diffident strains of "For Phoebe Still A Baby " ,the more regimented arpeggio's of "The Itchy Glowbo Blow" and the sky scraping chords and choral majesty of Cico Buff it's an absolute pleasure ."Suckling The Mender" prompts the usual clichés like celestial ...with very good reason and Ella Megablast Burls Forever is just hypnotically wonderful.
Anyone who tells you that "Heaven Or Las Vegas" is the quintessential Cocteau's album is talking rot. They are always worth listening to of course but it's this album and the monumental Treasure that best encapsulate their exceptional divinity. As good as music ever gets this ...though the song titles are still a tad silly. As complaints go that's a pretty minor one ...they could call all their songs Clive for me as long as they were as good as the ones on Blue Bell Knoll.