Between
availing myself of my ticket and placing myself in my seat, I
realised I didn't have very many expectations for this gig.
Needless
to say, I've always adored Fraser's mellifluous voice and loved her
original band the Cocteau Twins. To this day, 'Treasure'
is one of my most cherished albums. But as time went on they
seemingly turned more and more into the outfit their detractors had
always claimed they were, something shiny and ornate but
substanceless, musical bling. A later album was called 'Heaven
or Las Vegas', as if they'd started out pretty close to
heaven but had inclined further and further towards Las Vegas.
Moreover,
not only do we have this long performing gap but there's also the
absence of Fraser's long-term musical partner Robin Guthrie. Besides,
there was always something mediumistic about their music, as if they
were channelling something they weren't really in charge of. Was
there any actual basis for expectation? I even started to wonder
that, if I'd seen the actual Cocteau Twins back in the day, I might
not have bothered with this latter-day reappearance at all.
And at
first, I managed to keep true to my inner curmudgeon. There were new
tracks apleantly but they seemed too much like photocopies of the
old, similar in form but more pallid.
But as
things went on it all started to mesmerise me. The audience adoration
she received may have been a little overstated, perhaps more down to
their being glad to see her back than what she was actually doing.
(She was presented with numerous bouquets of flowers like she's our
generation's diva. Which I suppose she is.) Not everything worked.
There were moments of AOR-style trebly guitar. A duo performance with
Steve Hackett on acoustic, clearly signposted as a showstopper,
didn't really convince.
But
ultimately things turned about, and the old tracks started to reshap
themselves in the shadow of the new. This was most definitely the
case by the two encores, first a jawdropping version of 'Pearly Dew Drops Drops.'
And then...
Though
people were shouting for it I hadn't really considered that she'd
even play 'Song to the Siren', much less close on
it. (It not being an actual Cocteau Twins song, it being a cover and
so on.) As it was, she reworked it to such a degree that we didn't
know to start clapping until the opening lines.
In the
original, and unlike Tim Buckley's own version, the song to
the Siren is sung in a Siren-like voice. I've never been sure why
that works so well but it does. The original is sung resplendently
yet strangely, as if really the voice of some actual otherworldly
creature. I'm not sure if it's sung in an actual open tuning but with
the held notes it resounds, like those
Bulgarian folk choirs we were only just talking about.
The
new version is in the best sense of the word solo, like those missing
Cocteau Twins aren't really missing after all. The backing music is
stripped back, throwing the emphasis on her voice just as it becomes
less flamboyant, less dramatic. You no longer feel like you're being
called to, more like your ears are eavesdropping. Yet there's
something murky going on under the surface of the music, like
submerged rocks.
It's
perhaps an odd thing to say about such a delicate performance but
it's more mature, more assured. It's not someone looking back, hoping
they can still do what they did. Liz Fraser is looking forward.
But,
with the magic of the interweb, you don't need to take my word for
it. Here's the original version...
...and
the new...
Coming soon! Some much-promised out-of-date exhibition reviews...
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