★★★★✩
From one angle, anyone seeking to find meaning in the songs of Cocteau Twins is likely to be disappointed. That’s arguably especially true of fifth LP Blue Bell Knoll (1988). It’s an album, points out author Chris Tapley, that Liz Fraser once talked about as being lyrically concerned with “exaggerated sound rather than words”.
Yet, emotionally, the music of the Cocteau Twins needs little explanation. More than a quarter of a century after the band split, it still connects with listeners. In itself, that resonance more than justifies its inclusion in Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series, where authors look in detail at a single LP.