Cocteau Twins - Melonella
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- čas přidán 19. 12. 2017
- On this date in 1985, the COCTEAU TWINS released the 12” EP, ECHOES IN A SHALLOW BAY featuring the track MELONELLA, (December 20th, 1985).
The early to mid-80s saw the Cocteau Twins release a series of EPs, all desperately beautiful stuff, with titles like ‘Echoes In A Shallow Bay’ and ‘Aikea Guinea’ reflecting the vast, topographical dimension the music was beginning to assume.
These lustrous pieces saw the group moving into a musical subset in which they were the only element. Robin Guthrie's tremeloed, sunbeaming guitar was becoming a signature sound, the rhythm's martial clout beginning its ebb into a gentle, protean drift which would evolve over the next 10 years.
Newcomers to the Cocteau Twins today might find it hard to imagine how rootless and fathomless it sounded thirty-something years ago, when each new Cocteau Twins recording sailed into our consciousness bearing a fresh cargo of wonder.
Liz Fraser's voice was without precedent, a rainbow of Celtic dawn, folk myth, soul aria, nursery rhyme and lullaby. She may have been born with a great voice but it wasn't mere good fortune we were hearing, Fraser clearly had the intelligence and intellectual determination required to nurture such a gift.
Listening to MELONELLA, a moth whose larvae feed on bee honeycombs, reveals a piece as intricately structured musically as it is lyrically.
While the ‘Echoes’ and ‘Tiny Dynamine’ EPs are littered with references to butterflies and moths, on ‘Melonella’ the Cocteau Twins are literally reading from the index of a taxonomic glossary.
These lyrics took some very devoted people a long time to ‘crack’ but here they are:
Hesperiidae, Papilionidae, Apatelodidae, Epiplemidae, Notodontidae, Nemeobiidae, Eupterotidae, Callidulidae, Dioptidae, Lymantriidae, Noctuidae, Endromidae, Oxytenidae, Lycaenidae
Argyresthiidae, Ctenuchidae, Nepticulidae, Hieroxestidae, Symmocidae, Blastobasidae, Heliozelidae, Limacodidae, Agonoxenidae, Compsoctenidae, Neopseustidae, Incurvariidae
Oecophoridae, Stenomidae, Thyrididae, Heliodinidae, Glyphipterigidae, Dudgeoneidae.
There are of course mispronounciations (have you ever tried reading a taxonomic guide?) but read as you listen and the words begin to unravel.
But don’t dwell on them for too long as like much of the band’s material they are meant to be about as tangible as the breeze from a butterfly’s wings.
Follow DECADE - decade7787 - celebrating the SOUNDS of 1977 - 1987 - NEW WAVE, POST-PUNK, PUNK, EARLY SYNTH, SKA, GOTH & INDIE - Krátké a kreslené filmy
this is out of this world
To make a song with latin names of moths, and besides to make a song that is fckin cool... This makes Cocteau Twins a genius. For me.
Love the ‘Aargh’ ‘Aargh’ bits at 3:15 ❤
2020 - 1985 = 35 years and still my favorite tune. :-)
Mine as well - I added the list of butterflies and moths RC
She’s a goddess..ever since ❤
Yes: 2020 - 1985 = 35 years and still my favorite Cocteu Twins tune.
Nice use of Visage's "Mind of a Toy" video there. :)
One of my fav songs
Love❤️
Amo a mi novio.