Thursday, May 22, 2008

Cocteau Twins

Pitch The Baby
(click on title to hear samples)

The Cocteau Twins is definitely an alternative group from the 80's that isn't being copied anymore. I think the unique vocal harmonies from this girl group plus the highly synthisized sound was what made me listen. I don't remember thinking so much about the words as much as enjoying the sound of their group. Does that sound strange? Maybe not so much, when I began to let you in on a secret...

When I began to consider some of the lyrics to think about Biblically from their "Heaven or Las Vegas" album, I ran into something really bizarre. Check out the lyrics for this particular song:

Pitch the Baby
It don't have to be too good for you Only up to the waist-deep end
Pitch the baby She doesn't even know you're Sleeping up as we see her our sun
Hear the language Come dress your baby Only hope to not bust somethin' Here
I want to grow And keep her warm Man there must be something We've not found
I only want to love you I only want to love you It don't have to be too good for you Only
up to the waist-deep end Pitch the baby She doesn't even know you're Sleeping
up as we see her our sun Hear the language Come dress your baby Only hope to not bust somethin' Here I want to grow And keep her warm Man there must be something We've not found I only want to love you It don't have to be too good for me I only want to love you
It don't have to be too good for me I only want to love you I wander through the streets Thinking I'll fill their hearts with some sugar As everyone seems to notice Everyone says you favor me

These lyrics kind of confirmed what I was thinking in the back of my mind as I listen to this band in college. These lyrics don't have a complete thought and they are more about amusing than saying anything in depth. If you think that I am making this up, here is what the lead vocalist Liz Fraser has said in a few interviews:
"A lot of the stuff I was singing about [in the early 1980's] was all metaphorical. I wasn't talking like I am now. I guess it's back to how much personal power you feel that you have. Like, if I'm 17 and I don't even know when I'm hungry, am I tired, have I had any sleep - if you don't even know that, then how can you talk about lyrics that come from such an unconscious place? I always said 'I dont' know', and I didn't." [Alternative Press, 1995].
"What they are [pre-Four-Calendar Café lyrics], are words that I've taken from...maybe seen written down...in a language that I don't understand, and liking them...and maybe...making new words as well out of them. I mean I've got reams and reams of words that I don't have a clue what they mean, but...I wanted them because, I knew I'd be able to express myself without giving anything away." [NPR Interview, 1993].
It sure made me feel better about my ability to discern a song, when I knew it had no coherent thoughts. This my friends is postmodernism before postmodernism was cool. (not that I think it is cool but you get the point) What is wrong with throwing words together that don't make sense and don't have direction? Maybe there is no harm in secular music. In fact, if the lyrics aren't profane then it is probably perferred to listen to the Cocteau Twins then a supposed Christian group that does the same thing. But in life, a Christian should be challenged to read, study, contemplate and meditate upon the Word of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12-16 "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. but he who is piritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that He wil instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."
In a time of postmodernism now, the church shouldn't adopt a Cocteau Twins attitude towards their theology (if it makes you feel good). God's revelation about Himself is discovered in the Word of God. These truths from Scripture (the words) are what have eternal impact for our life.