Years after building the foundation for the enigmatic style of music better known as dream-pop, The Cocteau Twins expanded their stylistic influence in the mid-80's experimenting with ambient pioneer Harold Budd on their fifth fill-length album The Moon and the Melodies. The collaboration combines the signature sound heard on their 1984 masterpiece Treasure with an intoxicating level of ambient, creating a hybrid sound that was, at the time, as refreshing as it was artistic. Each of the eight songs on the album include multiple layers of ethereal textures that penetrate thick walls of atmosphere nearly inducing the deepest and darkest stage of sleep.
Listening to any Cocteau Twins album is comparable to an opera composed in a foreign language: you will not understand anything being sung; all you know is that the timbre and energy of the vocals is beautiful and full of emotion. The angelic pipes of Elizabeth Fraser's are far from rusted and soar above the frosty piano, shimmering guitars, and thick, dreamy drums. In addition to the essential "rock" instrumentation, tenor saxophone is heard wailing in the distance in a few songs. As a somewhat essential effect, the album is borderline lo-fi emphasizing the various spatial dimensions of sound presented. In Layman's terms, the fuzziness of the recordings and heavy use of reverberation/delay creates the atmosphere of—as obvious as it is—a dream.
The Moon and the Melodies gathers all the fundamentals of dream pop and combines it with traces of ambient, blurring the line between both innovative genres. As a record that was recorded by successful musicians with nothing to lose, this album proves to be, both, one of The Cocteau Twin's and Harold Budd's best albums to date. Late-night listening will turn into early-morning hours of rest soon after the album's terminus.
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