In this exploration of Cocteau Twins' quintessential album, Chris Tapley traces lines in all directions from Blue Bell Knoll to paint a revealing portrait of the enigmatic trio and their career-long struggles with self-doubt, stubborn principles, and pure experimentation.
Throughout their career, Cocteau Twins sought to escape definition. Lyrics were a closely-guarded secret, their transcendent recordings sounded completely unique, and they were notoriously tight-lipped during interviews. The music, they said, should speak for itself. Only nobody could agree on what the music said.
Released in 1988, their fifth full-length Blue Bell Knoll is the pinnacle of Cocteau Twins' legendary ambiguity. The first album recorded entirely in their own studio, these dense dreamlike songs capture the band as they refine the key elements of their iconic sound by testing the limits of language and the mixing desk.
In this exploration of Cocteau Twins' quintessential album, Chris Tapley traces lines in all directions from Blue Bell Knoll to paint a revealing portrait of the enigmatic trio and their career-long struggles with self-doubt, stubborn principles, and pure experimentation. From lyrics and production to artwork and interviews, everything about this influential, one-of-a-kind band stokes contradictions and uncertainty, and raises the question: can anyone ever really define what a song means?

Uses this ambiguous, but undeniably affecting, album as a framework to consider the value of artistic ambiguity, the limits of language, and what it means to understand music.

About the Author
Chris Tapley is a writer based in Glasgow, Scotland. His work has been published by The List, The Skinny, The Line of Best Fit, thi wurd magazine, the Scottish Writers' Centre, and commended for the Costa Short Story Award.


Book Information
ISBN 9781501390449
Author Chris Tapley
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc