Treasure | Cocteau Twins | 1984 | 4AD | #312
I found this quite a difficult album to describe. It plays out like the antidote to a stressful day with its delicate, dreamlike, melodies – not that today was stressful by any stretch. The songs wash about with ambient echoes and indecipherable lyrics with an unobtrusive drum track; it’s dream pop. The problem is that if you’re not looking for music to be medicinal then I found there wasn’t much here to find entertaining; the idea quickly runs bland and it’s just not fun after that.
On the one hand the 80s elements of experimental instrumentalism which technology afforded artists in the day are very obvious, on the other it’s quite remarkable how this doesn’t feel entirely like a record more than 30 years old. The squeaky-clean production leaves hardly a fingerprint with which to identify its place in the musical spectrum which, while normally I hate, I found myself appreciating here. The Enya-like vocals and atmospheric, chilled instrumentals are really effective at creating that peace-of-mind vibe (as is obviously the goal), but it all feels a bit too shallow and eventually the blissful bubble of euphoria bursts and you’re bored again. Having said that it’s easily an album I could come back to on another day and enjoy immensely. Who knows? It’s pretty though.