COCTEAU TWINS

Twinlights, released in September 1995 on Fontana Records, is the closest Cocteau Twins ever came to an "unplugged" recording — a stripped-back, mainly acoustic EP that arrived as a teaser for their final album, Milk & Kisses. Simon Raymonde described the format as a chance to strip away the band's signature effects and ask a simple question: "if you took all this stuff away... is there actually a song underneath?"

The four tracks include early acoustic versions of "Rilkean Heart" and "Half-Gifts," both later reimagined for Milk & Kisses in radically different form, alongside a piano-led reworking of "Pink Orange Red" (originally from 1985's Tiny Dynamine) and the EP-exclusive "Golden-Vein." Elizabeth Fraser has said the record centres on a man she fell in love with during the 1994 Four-Calendar Café tour — a relationship long speculated, though never confirmed, to involve Jeff Buckley.

Recorded and mixed at September Sound with additional sessions at Wessex, Twinlights captures the band at their most vulnerable and unadorned. A genuine collector's piece for anyone drawn to the emotional undercurrents beneath the Cocteau Twins' famously ethereal sound — and a fascinating companion to the album that followed.

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