Victorialand [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Out of print in the U.S., the Scottish alternative trio's1986 album for 4AD. Nine tracks, including 'Oomingmac' and 'Lazy Calm'.

Victorialand, Music, Cocteau Twins, Pop, Rock, Rock/Pop

Average customer rating:

Rightfully, though perhaps a little too gently, continues legacy

Fluffy Tufts

Must have album

How do you rate a masterpiece that is beyond measure?

Finally a CD that does justice to this essential record

Victorialand
Cocteau Twins
Manufacturer: 4ad / Ada
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | British Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Pink Opaque

Milk & Kisses

Four-Calendar Cafe

BBC Sessions

Four-Calendar Cafe

ASIN: B00007IFR5
Release Date: 2003-06-03

Tracks:

Lazy Calm
Fluffy Tufts
Throughout The Dark Months Of April And May
Whales Tales
Oomingmak
Little Spacey
Feet Like Fins
How To Bring A Blush To The Snow
The Thinner The Air

Album Description

2003 remastered version of their 1986 album. 4AD.

Album Details

With a Further Change in Musical Direction the Fourth Twins' Album Feature Instrumental Tracks And, Had the Term Not Fallen Into Such Disrepute, Victorialand Could Be One of the First 'chill-out' Albums. The Original is Still the Greatest.

Customer Reviews:

Rightfully, though perhaps a little too gently, continues legacy .......2007-05-09

Short album which continues to articulate that singular Cocteau aesthetic, composed between the shimmering guitars and ethereal female vocals found lingering throughout. Opening with some of their most obvious beauty, it becomes noticeable somewhere through the middle of this album that the haunting melodic sense which usually provides staggering counterpoint to this vocalist seems underdeveloped, sometimes taking their minimal approach down a partially mechanical route, but nearly everything becomes salvaged with exceptional production values for the time highlighting the many facets to this diamond-like music. In the final few songs, the Twins again justify another album experience with greater consuming dynamics, making Victorialand yet another indefensible snap-shot of a sound long lost.

Fluffy Tufts.......2005-07-23

The Cocteau Twins were one of those bands that I had heard of but never really took the time to check out their music. The first time I heard them was on a CMJ compilation cd ten years ago. It was not until last year when I bought the remastered version of "Treasure" and "Stars and Topsoil" did I find myself under the spell of The Cocteau Twins. I recently picked up "Victorialand" this week. Like "Treasure", "Victorialand" is candy for the ears. The cd is only 32 minutes long which is the only flaw I found with the album. The album begins with the dreamy soundscape of "Lazy Calm", probably my very favorite track on the album. From there the music just flows smoothly with Elizabeth Fraser's fragile vocals. Another personal favorite is "Little Spacey". I just love Robin Guthrie's guitar playing on this particular song. His intricate guitar playing complements Elizabeth's unique vocals. I found myself entranced with the ethereal melodies. "Victorialand" is a great album to to pick for people who just started getting into the Cocteau Twins' music such as myself. The production is absolutely pristine and the music is enchanting.

Must have album.......2004-12-04

I purchased the Remaster Victorialand a few months ago. I'll other people praise this album, I'll agree with any review. I writting this if you are a Cocteau Twins fan. If you have a early release of Victorialand and love it as I do. YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS ALBUM REMASTERED!!!! As an audiophile I compared this CD with earlier releases. This release is like High Def audio the recording is much cleaner and articulate. This album is the most played in my music collection but I haven't listen to it in awhile. But after listening to this release I am about to catch a second wind here. It is very enjoyable even a compressed media format, which sounds better than the earlier CD releases of Victorialand. I now on a mission to buy all Cocteau Twins remastered releases. Joy, pure joy. This release is as good as the Vinyl release. Buy it you won't be disapointed.

How do you rate a masterpiece that is beyond measure?.......2003-11-25

"Victorialand"is touched by the voice of angels. It fabricates a deeply emotional affect on the esoteric inner depths of ones soul and engenders a feeling of spirituality unknown to this world of existence. The listener is transcended into a realm of tranquility and a state of higher consciousness that many fail to achieve. This CD is beyond measure and the meaningless vocabulary of being called a masterpiece or astonishing. It simply is as air is to water; day is to night. It is life!

Finally a CD that does justice to this essential record.......2003-09-08

This is among the Cocteau Twins most beautiful and intimate records, and is unlike anything they or anyone else ever did. Working almost entirely without percussion, Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser surpassed themselves in imagining songs and settings which somehow evoke whatever in you, the listener, is most reserved and magical, the world you keep hidden even from yourself most of the time. If you don't want to get to that place, then this record isn't for you, but otherwise it is essential. In my collection of over 3000 recordings in all kinds of genres, this record has a permanent place in the top ten.
For whatever reason, the previous CD reissues of this, on Relativity and Capitol, never sounded as good as the original 45 RPM LP on 4AD. The Capitol was better than the Relativity, but still lacked the LP's warmth and detail. Now it's finally been done right and you can hear it as it should be heard.

Average customer rating:

Teletubbies On Acid - Galactic Dream Pop
Fantastic introduction to the lost art of Dreampop
The undiscovered sounds of the arctic
The delicate Cocteau Twins album
a true masterpiece

Victorialand
Cocteau Twins
Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | British Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Post-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Treasure
Heaven or Las Vegas
Four-Calendar Cafe
Garlands
Head Over Heels

ASIN: B000007R1O
Release Date: 1991-09-10

Tracks:

Lazy Calm
Fluffy Tufts
Throughout The Dark Months Of April And May
Whales Tails
Oomingmak
Little Spacey
Feet-Like Fins
How To Bring A Blush To The Snow
The Thinner The Air

Customer Reviews:

Teletubbies On Acid - Galactic Dream Pop.......2007-06-23

Imagine Teletubbies all doing acid and singing in the hippest way you can conjure.

Simply one of the most inventive, transformative pop albums of the 80s and 90s, "Victoria Land" was the stroke of beauty that found me in a mid-80s L.A. looking desperately for something to lift me above the manners of moraes of coke-snorting white trash film-industry yuppies from Vassar and Brown.

"Whale Tales" and "How to Bring a Blush to Snow" are repeat-play classics that reinvented psychedelia-with-class for a new age.

I could be wrong, but I don't think their catalogue gets better than this outing.
Total trance music, audio-hallucinogens, but not numbing.

Fantastic introduction to the lost art of Dreampop.......2007-06-18

I am a mere 25 years old and, therefore, don't remember when "Dreampop" was alive and well. I grew up with the music of Smashing Pumpkins and some ethereal goth, both of which, I had heard, were influenced by this genre. So, I checked out Cocteau Twin's "Victoria Land" and was very pleased. This album does take you to new places through whimsical soundscapes. Some good songs on this album are...
"Lazy Calm" is exactly as the name says, just a calm, flowing song, that takes awhile to really start, and remains quite and flowing throughout. "Omminmak" is more upbeat, with almost "double-dutch" sounding, "child singing and rhyming" vocals. "Throughout The Dark Months Of April And May" is more atmospheric, with a slightly darker edge...not dark as in scary dark, but dark as in regret and sorrow. "Little Stacey" is the closest thing to a "tradition" popular music song, with lyrics that are almost understandable and a very pronounced melody.
I give this album four stars because it seems to be lacking the structure of later Cocteau Twins albums. Also, Elizabeth Frazer's vocals are fantastic, however, it would be nice if there was at least one song that had more of a "traditional" sound, at least to the point of having lyrics which could be understood.

Other than that...a great album, and a great place to start in the "Dreampop" genre...and no, alas, they really don't make em like this anymore :(

The undiscovered sounds of the arctic.......2006-08-05

Victorialand, released in 1986, two years after their crtically acclamied album "Treasure" stands strongly as some of their best works. "Victorialand" is a complete change of direction, this tim using no bass, drum machines and a more ambient and calm sound. Victorialand is named after an area in Antarctica, and the sound does reflect this title. "Whales tales" feels like walking in a blizzard. "Lazy calm" stands as one of the most fantastic lavender-scented lullabies ever released. The fluttering guitar parts of "Oomingmak" project images of butterflies in the snow into the listeners mind. "Fluffy Tufts" musically looks like a sunset in Antractica. Victorialand is the perfect soundtrack to a bubblebath, rainy evening, Car/Train trip in the counrtyside, or one to listen to after a tiring day. A sublime and chilly album

The delicate Cocteau Twins album.......2003-07-31

The record is a masterpiece from the beginning to the end. This album is tied with "Head Over Heals" as my favorite record of the Cocteau Twins. And like "Head Over Heals", Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser do this one without Simon Raymonde. After a hard day, please put this record on, and all problems will just disappear. I think it is a tragedy that for the most part this album will never be heard by the mass majority of the people, and they are saddly never going to hear one of the most prettiest, peaceful, delicate, blissful albums ever made. And if we could hear butterflies sing they would sound like Elizabeth on this album. She always has amazed me, and here she astounds once again. Let me review my five favorites on "Victorialand".
1)"Throughout The Dark Months Of April and May". The wicked and at the same time delicate guitar playing and singing on this song is simply gorgeous. When you think the song will be going one way, they do a U-Turn. 2)"Lazy Calm". If you don't cry on this one, you have turned to stone. There is a stillness in this song any group would kill to be able to achieve, but these guys do it effortlessly. 3)"Feet-Like Fins" Pure brilliance. Here again another U-Turn song. 4)"The Thinner The Air". On this one close your eyes and experience pure ecstacy. 5)"How To Bring A Blush To The Snow". Another Cocteau Twins masterpiece. And the song title says it all about how you will feel after hearing it. Listen to this album, and be prepared to be a Cocteau Twins fan for life. I rate this group priceless and this album 5 stars.

a true masterpiece.......2003-03-28

This is arguably the most cohesive and consistent album in the Cocteau Twins' entire output. Victorialand has been hailed as a classic by critics and fans alike, and although such terminology is thrown around all too often, this album is certainly more than worthy of such praise. A unique and graceful flow begins very eloquently with the moon-like swelling guitar of "Lazy Calm," and this submissive invasion continues until the album's end. Songs such as "Fluffy Tufts," "Whale-Tails," and "Oomingmak" speak with the voice of an undiscovered country, yet one that thrives in the continents of the self, confined within ephemeral lines inscribed through human nature, and "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" is like a bead drawn along a silver thread of communication. As is often the case with Cocteau Twins songs, every moment on this album feels like varying facets of a long journey. One which is devoid of consecutivity and order, and instead flows in all directions in a blissful surrender. This is not to say that, as a whole, these songs are brimming with homogeneity, for each is tinged with its own peculiar mode of expression. These are trails, wisps of smoke, half-spoken figures, incantations whose meanings have become lost to even the soothsayers themselves.

My futile descriptive attempts aside, I would say the personal highlight of this CD is "How to Bring a Blush to the Snow." Victorialand is worth buying for this song alone, although it is difficult for me to be selective when listening to such a coherent masterwork of utter beauty. This is truly, in my opinion, a pure aural journal of nocturnal travel which has few (if any) equals.

The instrumentation is sparse compared to other Cocteau Twins endeavors, but this lends a rather folk-like atmosphere which is rather fitting for the interal nature of these songs, as if they are wanderers spreading the hymns of their conceptual homeland. Robin Guthrie's guitar, in many guises, dominates here, yet never seems at contention with Elizabeth Fraser's voice. There is a mature and shimmering harmony (both literal and figurative) achieved here.

Tracks:

Lazy Calm
Fluffy Tufts
Throughout the Dark Months of April and May
Whales Tails
Oomingmak
Little Spacey
Feet-Like Fins
How to Bring a Blush to the Snow
Thinner the Air

Album Description

Japanese reissue of the band's 1986 album, digitally remastered and packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. Beggars Banquet. 2005.

Average customer rating:

Soft and bright and otherworldly and familiar.
OPERA D'ARTE
nothing else compares
Quite simply, one of the greatest albums ever
This CD is beautiful!

Victorialand
Cocteau Twins
Manufacturer: 4ad Records UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | British Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Post-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Alternative Rock | Imports | Stores | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music

Pop | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000008978
Release Date: 1999-03-09

Tracks:

Lazy Calm
Fluffy Tufts
Throughout The Dark Months Of April And May
Whales Tails
Oomingmak
Little Spacey
Feet-Like-Fins
How To Bring A Blush To The Snow
The Thinner The Air

Album Description

Out of print in the U.S., the Scottish alternative trio's1986 album for 4AD. Nine tracks, including 'Oomingmac' and 'Lazy Calm'.

Customer Reviews:

Soft and bright and otherworldly and familiar........2004-06-20

If you're already a Cocteau Twins fan, then you're aware of their distinctive style and the range of musical sounds that it's made of. If you're Cocteau-curious and looking for an album to start with, Victorialand is that album.

The first track alone, "Lazy Calm," is an example of why as it starts with distant, relaxing woodwind tones and rises to a burst of joyous vocal sounds that can easily be imagined heralding a spring sunrise or Venus rising from the waves before drawing back to the woodwind tones.

Then the chiming guitars of "Fluffy Tufts" sound, accompanied by Liz Fraser's fluttering, multilayered vocals to produce a welcoming, upbeat yet soft song that distills all that seems to distill all that is warm and bright and good in the world into sound.

Victorialand goes on in this fashion for seven more tracks, and stands out in the Cocteau catalog for it's toned-down instrumentation that focuses attention on Fraser's distinctive otherworldly-yet-familiar vocals. It is one of the Cocteau Twins albums that sounds as if it's always been present, playing in the back of my imagination and providing the soundtrack to all that is joyous and wonderful and calm and comforting.

If you're new to the Cocteau Twins and want a good album to start with, this is as fine an introduction to their sound as one could imagine. If you're an existing fan looking to expand your collection, Victorialand is a fine example of the Cocteau Twins (relatively) later sound, closer to "milk and kisses" or "treasure" in vocal stylings and with instrumentation that sets it apart from all other Cocteau albums.

OPERA D'ARTE.......1999-08-28

...I THINK I'VE NEVER HEARD MUSIC THAT LOOKS LIKE THAT MUCH A WORK OF ART BEFORE !

nothing else compares.......1999-06-25

immerse yourself in this CD, the cocteau twins' finest hour. its emotional range, lush instrumentation and vocals not of this earth still mesmerize, relax and inspire me 14 years later.

feeling introspective, romantic, solitary, meditative...or wish you were? liz, robin and simon have your soundtrack ready. worth the money, without a doubt.

Quite simply, one of the greatest albums ever.......1999-06-22

Yes, this is the Cocteau Twins I know and love. Otherworldly music with a quality that transcends everyday life. It's not every album that is capable of providing the listener with a spiritual experience, but the Cocteau Twins do that with ease. On this album and Treasure, and to a lesser extent on Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas, they have created a rich musical tapestry, full of magic, wonder, and awe. Raw emotion expressed with music. Or is it something bigger than emotion? Whatever it is that the Cocteau Twins do to me, no other band can do it, and for that I am most grateful to them. I would still probably recommend that new listeners start with Heaven or Las Vegas or Blue Bell Knoll, but this is their finest moment.

This CD is beautiful!.......1998-10-31

What I like about this CD is the innocency of each melody. Some of the other Cocteau Twins's releases are quite brooding (though still very well composed). Victorialand leaves me with a kind of ethereal, otherworldly attitude that helps a sullen heart not take life so seriously.

Average customer rating:

Victorialand
Cocteau Twins
Manufacturer: Capitol/4AD
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | British Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000LYOCYK

Average customer rating:

Victorialand
Cocteau Twins
Manufacturer: 4AD
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music