A female vocalist who uses
phonetics as a pick with which to strum her vocal cords.
In a node that now lives in
Heaven,
blowdart had something interesting to add ,
“There is a knack to working out what she sings when she's in early Cocteau Twins mode.
She worked out the "words" by writing everything down and splitting them into groups of 3 or 4 letters, for example listen to Ivo and the chorus consists of "We all adore Ivo" which she sings as "Wea lla dor eiv o"
The things you find out when getting drunk with music producers. “
The effect is liquid voice that surges over one in waves. Ears, long tired of piecing together words so as to wring forth meaning, need only hear and feel. With the use of
multi-track recording, Elizabeth sings her own
backup vocals that frequently twirl and spiral around the lead, achieving IMHO, some of the most beautiful noises to ever tremble my
eardrums.
The majority of her work is with the band
Cocteau Twins that she joined at the behest of her then
boyfriend/band
guitarist Robin Guthrie, though she has added her angelic and strange talents to a great many, such as
Felt,
This Mortal Coil,
Medicine,
Ian McCulloch,
Massive Attack, and
Peter Gabriel to name a few.