Four-Calendar Café (Remastered) / Four-Calendar Cafe (Remastered)

As the relationship between Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser deteriorated, so did the health of The Cocteau Twins. Yet the band soldiered on to record 1993’s Four-Calendar Café, which has the poignancy of a dream whose participants know it's about to end. The songs are more concentrated and less mirage-like than the Cocteaus' beloved '80s recordings. Some listeners may detect the aftereffects of heroin in the dolorous rhythms of “Evangeline,” “Essence,” and “Oil of Angels,” but Four-Calendar Café has a clarity that came from fighting toward sobriety. It's less celebratory than the band’s earlier work but more intimate. It was as though the band had made the decision to pay closer attention to their fears, as well as their desires. That intense introspection resulted in music that was fragile but also authentic. “Cry, cry, cry ‘til you know why,” sings Fraser on “Know Who You Are at Every Age,” a song that's somehow steel-eyed even in its beautiful languor. Though the album’s current of despondency runs deep, it also contains “Bluebeard,” “Squeeze-Wax," and “Summerheard,” songs as wide-open and wind-filled as the Scottish coastline.